Revolution at the Checkout Counter

The Universal Product Code (UPC), a small rectangle of black and white bars, adorns virtually every retail item we purchase. Yet 25 years ago, the UPC was a mere kernel of an idea shared by a small cadre of manufacturing and chain store executives. Here Stephen Brown, the legal counsel of those exec [...]
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The Universal Product Code (UPC), a small rectangle of black and white bars, adorns virtually every retail item we purchase. Yet 25 years ago, the UPC was a mere kernel of an idea shared by a small cadre of manufacturing and chain store executives. Here Stephen Brown, the legal counsel of those executives, traces its origin and evolution. The development of the UPC illustrates the process of setting industry standards without government intervention and shows how systems of complementary technologies evolve. The economic consequences of the UPC are investigated in an introduction by John T. Dunlop and Jan Rivkin.