SALT LAKE CITY — There is a push right now to replace familiar UPC barcodes, that are on pretty much everything, with QR codes.
KSL Executive Producer Sloan Schrage and I went shopping and discovered the future of the barcode is, at least partly, already sitting on store shelves. QR codes are on several product labels.
Scan one, and it can provide loads of information, although what we found was mostly the same nutritional stuff already printed on the packaging.
And sometimes not even that.
The change that is coming next could be more helpful: a QR code designed to do two jobs. It can work with your phone in the grocery aisle and also go “beep” at the checkout.
The current UPC barcode dates back to the 1970s, with standards managed by the nonprofit organization GS1.
Unlike a UPC, the new two-dimensional codes can carry additional information such as a lot number or expiration date. That could potentially let a store identify aging food, mark it down or stop a recalled batch at checkout. GS1 standards also allow the codes to link shoppers to information such as ingredients, allergens, recycling instructions and other product details.
Consider those familiar reduced-price stickers.
At one Salt Lake City store, we found packages where somebody had physically placed a new barcodes over the originals.
“Seems like a waste,” Schrage said. “To have somebody come through and individually do all of these, I mean, that takes time.”
Efficiency is why barcodes came to be in the first place, says Melanie Nuce-Hilton, senior vice president at GS1 US.
“It was all about that efficiency of the price-look-up at the register,” she told Get Gephardt.
Now, she says, it is time for an evolution.
“We are now moving away from the UPC and to QR codes,” Nuce-Hilton said.
The industry push is called “Sunrise 2027.”
The goal is for retail checkout systems around the world to be capable of reading the new two-dimensional barcodes by the end of 2027, alongside the traditional UPC.
“What is the practical benefit of a shopper standing in the grocery aisle?” I asked Nuce-Hilton.
“I think one of the biggest benefits is being able to unlock the product story right while you’re in the store,” she said.
That “product story” could help a shopper instantly identify whether a product contains gluten, how many grams of protein it has or how many electrolytes are in it. It could allow you to instantly pull up a recipe. Perhaps one day it could even allow a consumer to pay for the item instantly from the aisle as they put it into their carts.
But, of course, the real question for shoppers is money.
“Could this help shoppers save money?” I asked.
“For sure,” Nuce-Hilton said.
She says the savings could be both direct and indirect.
Less hunting for products, less manually changing stickers and less waste could lower costs for stores, some of which could ultimately be passed on to shoppers.
“Industry came back to us about 10 years ago and said we need a renaissance around, you know, what we’re doing at the register,” Nuce-Hilton said.
But the retail industry is not universally clamoring for the change, says Dave Davis, president of the Utah Retail Merchants Association, which represents retailers in the state.
“I don’t know that retailers would be out there pounding the table saying, ‘Hey, we have to have this, we have to have this,'” Davis said.
After all, upgrading computers, scanners and processes is an investment and a cost.
Whether any of that ultimately shows up in the prices shoppers pay remains an open question.
So does whether shoppers will actually use the additional information these codes can provide.
“If consumers don’t find it useful, then I think that the lifespan of this type of product is going to be relatively short,” Davis said.
Technology can lead to lower prices, but it can also work the other way.
Algorithms already adjust prices based on demand. Think Uber or Lyft surge pricing, more expensive seats for a big game or an airline ticket changing price as a flight fills up.
Products, especially those sold online, can also change price throughout the day based on demand.
Going further down that rabbit hole is the idea of using information about an individual consumer to determine what that specific shopper pays.
The Federal Trade Commission calls the practice “surveillance pricing.” The agency began studying how companies could use information such as a consumer’s location, demographics, browsing history or shopping behavior to target prices. In August 2026, the FTC also sought public comment on a proposed enforcement policy statement concerning what it calls “personalized pricing,” or using personal data to set prices based on what a company believes an individual consumer is willing to pay.
Utah lawmakers considered the issue during the 2026 legislative session as well. S.B. 293 would have restricted suppliers, with certain exceptions, from using a consumer’s personal data, biometric data, purchase history or related inferences to set the price charged to that individual. S.B. 177 would have required suppliers using algorithmic pricing based on a consumer’s personal data to disclose that fact alongside the price. Neither bill passed.
Sunrise 2027 is not a federal mandate. GS1 says the industry goal is for checkout systems to be able to read the new codes by the end of 2027. Traditional UPCs are expected to continue working alongside them during the transition.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
