Do barcodes always represent the accurate price of an item? A university researcher and senior marketing lecturer in Auckland claims that supermarket barcode errors occur at least once in every 25 items scanned and that this is costing consumers millions. His name is Dr. Paul Pickering and you can read his story here in the Otago Daily Times.
But do take the time to go to the end where GS1 weighs in on this assertion by Dr. Pickering. Here’s what the newspaper reports:
Global organisation GS1, which manages barcode standards, told the newspaper the grocery industry was one of the best at ensuring its prices matched up. It said less than 20 complaints were received each year…
[Editor's comment: It's important to note that any complaints that GS1 might recieve would be from businesses -- said grocers -- and, if it somehow involved the GDSN, it would be for those cases where the price coded was less than the selling price; that is, the item sold for less than it should have. Consumers would be concerned with the obverse: where they are overpaying for an item. I doubt grocers would, as a group, really be engaging in massive fraud "of millions." It's a strong argument for normalized GDSN for everything.]
Filed under: GS1 Tagged: | Bar code, C-Level Issues, Emerging Markets Labeling, Global Standards, GS1, GS1 Adoption
The barcodes arent supposed to “represent the correct price”, they are supposed to identify the item waved in front of the scanner.
The article abstract I could find doesn’t seem to diss the scanner methodology, but seems to focus on the issue of the price in the system not matching the label stuck on the shelf. Which is a different issue than scanners not identifying the product correctly.