Scanning: recent experience in the USA: The impact on store operations

What has been the progress of scanning in the United States over the past few years? After initial difficulties, things now seem to be picking up. Just over 8,000 manufacturing companies are using a UPC identity number; symbol marking has increased to around 90% of grocery volume; and the number of scanner‐equipped stores has now reached about 800. In this paper presented to the recent CIES Congress in Montreal, Thomas Wilson, in his comprehensive review of the scanning situation to date, suggests that American retailers are now “on the brink of a second phase of UPC development, the soft savings revolution.”