Major change to supermarket checkouts as 50-year shopping feature is being axed
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For the last 50 years, whenever you’ve bought something in a store, a barcode will likely have been scanned at the checkout – whether it was at a supermarket or clothing store. However, all this could be set to change in the next few years, as retailers are going to be ditching ‘old-fashioned’ barcodes with lines and replacing them with modern square, pixel-based QR codes.
![[Man is using mobile phone QR code to checkout]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-1307384678.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
This is according to GS1, the world’s only authorised provider of Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) – the unique number that powers each and every barcode. They claim the new codes are capable of holding much more information about products, such as ingredients, possible allergens and could even provide recipe suggestions for food items.
![[Bar Code]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-1033625412.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Currently, traditional barcodes are only able to store seven specific pieces of information – the name of the item, the manufacturer, the type of product it is, its size, colour, weight and the price. Anne Godfrey, chief executive of GS1 UK, claims almost half of British retailers have already updated their checkouts to prepare for the use of QR codes.
QR codes have been in use for some time generally in shops and restaurants, but became increasingly more popular during the pandemic when everyone had to scan them in order to order from menus in restaurants or bars. And they’ve recently started cropping up more frequently on product packaging to provide additional information to shoppers, or link to websites.
