RCA Automated Supermarket Checkout Stand

Description:

By the late 1960s, minicomputers were sufficiently cheap to envision using them to automate much of the pricing and sale of groceries. RCA Corporation, working in conjunction with Kroger Company, developed a supermarket checkstand that linked to an RCA 6100 minicomputer. This is an example of the checkstand. It first operated at a Kroger’s store in Kenwood, Ohio, near Cincinnati, in July, 1972. The tests were quite successful, running for many weeks. However, the device relied on a different identification code than the Universal Product Code adopted the following year. RCA decided not to try to sell point-of-sale terminals.

Reference:

Stephen A. Brown, Revolution at the Checkout Counter:The Explosion of the Bar Code, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.

Date Made: 1970-1972

Maker: RCA Corporation

Location: Currently not on view

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Computers, Food, Computers & Business Machines, Cash and Credit Registers

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of Sperry-Univac Computer Systems

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 1974.309503.01Catalog Number: 309503.01Accession Number: 309503

Object Name: minicomputer peripheral

Physical Description: metal (overall material)plastic (overall material)glass (overall material)rubber (overall material)Measurements: overall: 4 ft x 14 ft; 1.2192 m x 4.2672 m

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a1-3721-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_214461

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