NOT ALL RETAILERS SCANNING EAN CODES

Michael Garry

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. -- Although most food retailers are now able to scan and process 13- and eight-digit EAN bar codes from outside North America, a small number of mostly small to midsized companies still lack that capability.

The ability to scan the foreign bar codes -- as well as the traditional 12-digit UPC codes -- was the intent of the 2005 Sunrise initiative, established by GS1 US (formerly the Uniform Code Council) here for all North American retailers. This upgrade enables a smoother flow of products sourced from outside of North America.

Almost six months after the Jan. 1, 2005, deadline for meeting that requirement, Alan Garton, director, channel development, general merchandise, retail for GS1 US, provided an update on the implementation status of retailers, in a presentation, "2005 Sunrise Post Mortem," at GS1 US' U Connect Conference. The conference was held June 7 to 9 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, Dallas.

"We have a lot of concern about small to midsized retailers," Garton said. The grocery industry, he noted, has had more work to do on scanning upgrades because it was the first to embrace the original UPC bar codes. Among other retail channels, such as department stores, mass market retailers, specialty retailers and drug chains, most "have met the point-of-sale requirements" for the EAN codes, Garton said.

To help smaller companies become compliant, GS1 US is continuing with education efforts that have been under way for several years. GS1 US is asking technology suppliers, such as software companies, to help in the education effort, Garton said.

Another issue identified by Garton is the lack of understanding of the bar-code issue by sales, merchandising and buying executives. GS1 US has received calls from manufacturers complaining that a retailer can't accept 13-digit codes, when the problem was just that the buyers were not aware that the retailer did have that capability. "Talk to your buyers and category managers -- they don't know about this stuff," Garton advised U Connect attendees. "Most category managers don't care about it."

One attendee, from Publix Super Markets, Lakeland, Fla., observed that the chain has educated its buyers, but that some suppliers were not aware of the issue. "Suppliers in the grocery industry need to be educated," the Publix executive said.

Garton advised that there are consequences for retailers unable to scan 13-digit bar codes. For one thing, they will be at a competitive disadvantage compared to retailers who can scan these codes and therefore more readily sell products from other parts of the world. To remain competitive, non-compliant retailers would have to dedicate labor for re-marking or labeling of 13-digit bar-coded products.

At the U Connect session, Garton also advised retailers to avoid the practice of "parsing" UCC company prefixes in company applications. Many retailers were accustomed to doing that when the manufacturer ID within a bar code was fixed at six digits, but since GS1 US now offers variable-length company prefixes (six to 10 digits), simply capturing a six-digit number will no longer work. "Now is a really good time to stop," he said.

In addition to handling 13-digit codes, GS 1 US has also encouraged retailers to be able to accommodate global trade item numbers (GTINs), which incorporate bar codes with as many as 14 digits. GTIN compliance was not a requirement for the 2005 Sunrise initiative, but it is required for global data synchronization, ordering cases and pallets, Reduced Space Symbology bar codes and the emerging electronic product code.