Bar Code, Less Thought

Pencil, paper, slide rule, compass, protractor, were all items a student needed for math class.  Now, students are taught to use calculators and computer software to solve math problems.  Fifty years ago, a student with good mathematical skills might qualify for a job as a cashier.  He used pen and paper to itemize items with description, unit price, extensions, and total the bill. Even if an old hand cranked adding machine or cash register were used, it was important for the cashier to know the prices of the items, and enter them manually into the machines.  The skills to solve simple multiplication and addition were important.

Today, the skills needed to do the same job are less analytical and more social.  Business machines have become so advance with the technology to compute and store information that pen and paper are obsolete. With the invention of the bar code an item can be described, priced, and inventory adjusted simultaneously when the item is sold.  As each transactions is made the sales, inventory, accounts receivable, and any other involved account is adjusted. There is no need to write and invoice or post all the different accounts by hand. 

The bar code invention has become important to merchants of all sizes.   Some super stores, like Walmart allow customers to go through a self-check lane.  The bar code along with today’s technology can take the place of a cashier.  In small stores, the bar code is a security net for the merchant.  The qualifications of the cashier can be more social and less number crunching.  If the cashier can wave a wand or swipe merchandise and cards, then the rest of the thinking is done by the computerized cash register.  After following the simple directions printed on the screen, the cashier puts the items in a bag and did not need to solve even one mathematical problem.