UPC Codes

[Wes Henderson]

Would like to get experiences with UPC coding.

Obviously, each bottle has a UPC code. What about separate UPC codes for the shipper (indicating a full case) or for the pallet? Are you placing the bottle UPC on the outside of the shipper case, or using a unique case UPC, or both? I also know some of the control states and Canada require special numbers and coding...

Thanks for the help!

Wes

[Melkon Khosrovian]

Wes -- you need an SCC code (14 digits) for cases. You can create these for individual product cases or mixed cases, but that's how distributors and retailers track items in and out of their warehouses. You can generate checksum digits at this site (http://www.upccode.net/upc_check.html) and actual UPC and SCC barcodes at this site (http://barcode.tec-it.com/barcode-generator.aspx).

Control state codes are different and vary a little from state to state. Best to check with the ABCs of each one for their parameters.

Cheers,

Melkon

[Scott @ Twenty2Vodka]

Barcodes have an interesting history. In a nut shell, there is one company you can offically buy them from, and 2 (i think) competitor companies who bought up a whole bunch early on from the original company and now sell off individual codes to people who only need one at a time. (that is a very very abreviated version)

anyway, when it was time for us to head down this path, we opted to register with the "offical" company, here's their link: http://www.gs1.org/barcodes

I can't remember specifically what the upfront registration $ was, but i do remember that for this calender year 2010, renewal of membership was around $150. For that $150, you are assigned a company prefix and (as far as i know) and unlimited quantity of bar codes for your array of different products. To answer your post specifically, we bar code bottles and the cases and have different codes for 6 pack and 12 pack cases. When it's time to add a new barcode, we just log in and generate a new one at no additional fee. We don't use them for in house tracking yet, but i believe our different brokers do. The GS1 site offers a sort of walk through when setting up a new code, asking you the important questions like dims, weight, etc.

-Scott

[Kristian]

We used ezupc.com and haven't had any problems so far. Once you pay for the barcodes they are assigned to you to use as you like. We put them on individual bottles, half cases and cases.

[daveflintstone]

This was already discussed in this thread I think.

[Wes Henderson]

This was already discussed in this thread I think.

Thanks to all!