What happens at a store when items have the same barcode?

What happens at a store when items have the same barcode?
I understand that bar codes are “only” 10 or 13 digits, naturally limiting the available possibilities. But since there are sooooo many different products, how can a store, e.g. Walmart, differentiate if lets say a deck of cards and a pack of Aspirin have the same bar code? How does the cashier know what’s up, and how does the register react anyways?

Best answer:

A 10-digit number has 10,000,000,000 different possibilities. There aren’t that many products for sale. No two products will have the same UPC code.

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2 Comments for What happens at a store when items have the same barcode?

  • 1. Joke H  |  May 7th, 2010 at 4:00 pm

    Here is your answer: If they are registered as they should be, there will not be two identical barcodes. All barcodes (should be) issued by the UCC (universal code counsel).

    —————- Further clarification you asked about ———

    Well I guess I have to say… 10 Billion is a lot – that would be 10 Billion individual RETAIL products, just for the US and Canada.

    To give a little more background – a UPC code is usually broken down where the first few numbers (i forget how many) are assigned to each manufacturer. And the rest are just sequential – thus even further limiting the odds of repetition (were it uncontrolled)

    But again, to put 10 billion into perspective: look at the largest retailer in the world, Walmart. I would guess they only have a ‘few’ thousand products total in each store. This is a retailer who sells a notable % of all products sold in the world, and their stores are stocked with something like 1/1000th of one % of all of the possible UPC codes. (my math could be off by a zero)

    There are other barcode types that have longer #s such as EAN and could be adopted if we ‘run out’.

    Also, think about this – in theory – even if everyone didnt register their UPC codes and just printed what they wanted. If a store carried 1000 items, the odds of there being two of the same random 13 digit numbers in one store is something like 1 in 10million.

    :)

  • 2. Chris Thompson  |  August 26th, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    Well, there are textbooks that have the exact same barcode. What if I were to swap textbooks, would the scanner pick up the difference even though the barcodes are exactly identical?

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