On June 26, 1974, a cashier in Troy, Ohio, made retail history by scanning a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum, the first product ever purchased using a UPC barcode. That simple collection of black lines would go on to transform shopping, eventually appearing on more than a billion products and being scanned billions of times every day.

Now, more than 50 years later, the barcode’s reign may finally be nearing its end.

Its likely successor actually dates back to 1990s Japan, where Toyota subsidiary Denso was struggling with auto parts that sometimes required workers to scan as many as 10 different barcodes. Engineer Masahiro Hara wondered if the same information could be captured in two dimensions instead of one. Inspired in part by the pattern of black and white stones on a Go board, his team developed the QR code, capable of holding vastly more information and being scanned from multiple directions.

So why replace a system that has worked so well for half a century? Because today's barcode can basically tell a checkout system what a product is and what it costs. A 2D code can potentially tell us much more, including where a product came from, its ingredients and allergens, expiration date, environmental impact, and even how to recycle or dispose of it. That additional information has become increasingly important as manufacturers and regulators demand better product tracking, particularly during food recalls.

That's the idea behind Sunrise 2027, an industry push led by GS1 to get retailers ready for the next generation of barcodes. For consumers, one code could work at checkout while also providing useful information about the product. For manufacturers, however, the transition could mean a massive overhaul of packaging, databases and tracking systems.

So the next time you hear that familiar beep at the checkout, appreciate it. One of the most successful technologies in retail history may be getting ready to pass the scanner to the next generation.