Forty years ago, a pack of Wrigley’s gum became the first item to be scanned and purchased using what is now used 5 billion times every day: the Universal Product Code barcode. Since then, barcode and scanning technologies have become an integral part of the entire supply chain industry, and have continued to evolve. Sharon Buchanan was just another cashier hard at work at a supermarket in Ohio on 26 June 1974, when a group of gentlemen asked her if she could help them with a project they had been working on. Buchanan had no clue that she would be the first cashier in history to swipe and scan the Universal Product Code on an item – or hear the iconic ‘beep’.