Barcodes and the scanner

Almost every shop register has a scanner that beeps. It looks complicated, but the idea is simple. In this lesson you learn what happens when you scan an item.

A barcode is a number

A barcode is a row of black and white bars. Those bars are a way to read a number very quickly. Below the bars you usually see the same number in plain digits, for example 2000000123457.

That's all that's in it. No price, no name, no size.

So where do the name and the price come from? They're in your register system. Your register has a list of all your items. When you scan a barcode, the register looks up that number in the list and finds the name and the price there.

If you change an item's price in your register system, the register charges the new price right away. Even when the old price is still on the label. Do print a new label though, or your customer gets a surprise at checkout.

The scanner types for you

A barcode scanner works like a keyboard. It reads the bars, types the number and then presses Enter. Exactly what you'd do if you typed the number yourself, only faster and without typos.

That's why you usually don't need to install anything. You plug the scanner into the computer and it works. There are scanners with a cable and wireless ones. Both are fine.

Can't the scanner read a barcode, because the label is crumpled or wet? Then type the number below the bars. That works just as well.

Not everything needs a barcode

You don't have to give everything in your shop a barcode. Many shops only do it for part of their stock. For example for consignors' items: then the register knows whose item it is, and the right consignor gets the money. A bin of £1 books from your own stock often doesn't need a barcode.

A customer comes with a coat with a barcode and two books without one? No problem. Everything goes on one receipt:

• you scan the coat,
• is an item in your register but has it lost its label? Then you look it up by name,
• you add the books by hand, with a name and a price.

Watch out: an item you add by hand doesn't belong to anyone. If it's a consignor's, look it up in your register. Otherwise the consignor gets no money for it.