This timeline provides insight into how technology in retail evolved and how the same technology was used for different purposes. For those of you who have been constantly following me, this is the summary of the technology series. This timeline is a glimpse into the past. Current uses and the future of each of these technologies was covered in previous blogs.
1. 1857 - the shopping cart developed by Sylvan Goldman, the owner of a grocery chain called Piggly-Wiggly in Oklahoma City.
2. 1872 - first Mail Order Catalog sent by Aaron Montgomery Ward. A single 8 X 12 inch sheet with a price list that showed the merchandise for sale with ordering instructions.
3. 1879 the cash register - patented in 1879 by James Jacob Ritty, known as "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier," to solve the problem of his employees cheating him.
4. 1861- First English social survey research - Mayhew's London Life and London Poor followed by Charles Booth’s monumental 17 volume study of Labour and Life of the People of London (1886), Rowntree's Poverty: A study of Town Life (1901), and Arthur Bowley’s Livelihood and Poverty (1912).
5. 1906 - a cash register with an electric motor, while designed by Charles F. Kettering who worked at the National Cash Register Company, a firm started by Ritty. The National Cash Register Company became NCR Corp. in 1974. NCR still makes business machines including the cash register using computing technologies.
6. 1952 – the Barcode: US Patent #2,612,994 was issued to Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver for a series of concentric circles which were aligned to form the first forms of a barcode.
The current system known as the U.P.C. symbol set or Universal Product Code was invented by George J. Laurer in 1973.
In 1974, the first U.P.C. barcode was installed on a packet of Wrigley's Gum at a Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
7. 1954 - Automatic Doors: Dee Horton and Lew Hewitt of Horton Automatics invented the first sliding automatic door in 1954, sold in USA in 1960.
8. 1973 - RFID: Mario W. Cardullo received the first U.S. patent for an active RFID tag. In the same year Charles Walton patented a passive system for door locks, much like the ones seen in hostels today.
9. 1981 - Loyalty programs: American Airlines was the first to introduce “AAdvantage” to retain AA’s most frequent flyers and reward them for their loyalty.
10. 1986 - People Meter - developed by Nielsen.
11. 1994 - QR Code: DENSO WAVE (then a division of DENSO CORPORATION) introduced the QR code or the Quick Response code for use in commercial purposes.
12. Neuroscience: Although the history of neuroscience can be traced back to 4000B.C., its use in the field of market research is relatively current and developing.
The future of technology in retail lies in the reinvention and innovative uses of the above mentioned technologies.
