“A new Ticketmaster system that gives venues the option to omit barcodes … could be an early sign that the days of the barcode are numbered,” reads an unsigned Sunday (3/18) article in the Canadian Press (Toronto). Technological advances are allowing companies to replace barcodes “with more secure digital tickets with codes embedded in a fan’s phone or a Wi-Fi connected wristband that lets them track consumers for both security and data-collection purposes…. Businesses that are already moving on from the barcode range from Montreal’s Osheaga music festival, which prefers scannable wristbands, to Amazon’s new, cashierless store in Seattle that uses various sensors to detect products customers have in their carts and automatically charge their accounts…. ‘The barcode’s going to go away,’ Ticketmaster CEO Michael Rapino reportedly [said] last fall.” Norman Shaw, an associate professor at Ryerson University, “doesn’t expect retailers to abandon the barcode en masse because most of the alternatives require customers to have a smartphone or rely on the internet, which can have outages.”
Posted March 21, 2018
