Retail has been there for years. And around the late 1940s, the businesses were growing like anything. Tracking and managing the inventory was more challenging than ever.
Imagine how hard it would be to count and record each time manually.
A student named "Norman Joseph Woodland" had a stroke of genius. He drew circles and lines in the sand while sitting on a beach in Miami pondering a solution to this problem.
💡 'Aha'! moment came when he realized he could encode information using a series of lines of varying thickness and spacing. (I wonder if it was this straight to the point. Like the discovery of gravity)
Woodland's idea eventually evolved into the barcode, but surprisingly, it wasn't until 1974 🤯 that the first item was scanned using a barcode. Today, we cannot imagine retail without barcodes. It has certainly revolutionized the entire industry.
Next time you're in the checkout line, take a moment to appreciate the humble barcode and the innovative spirit behind it. What other innovations do you think have transformed the retail industry?