Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks
UPC are 10 digits and sometimes have the supplemental.
The first 5 digits are the publisher, the rest is the PRICE.
Big variety stores love this. They don't track titles, only price and vender (sales). (The jobber worries about the titles)
The supplemental as a subset (some part of the book number) of the ISBN.
Sometimes there are 2 bar codes. Always scan the one that stars with 978
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Interesting. I never knew it was divided up like that. Of course it makes sense. Far easier to keep track of things from publisher, to warehouse, to bookstore I imagine. Banks do something similar. Their 'routing number' on checks that depositors get from them identify which bank issued them. Not which branch but the bank overall. So Bank One has a different routing # than First Federal for example. So that if I write you a check you can take it to your bank where they scan the routing number and find my account from the account # which is also on the check. Otherwise I can't imagine how hard it would be to do any banking. It makes sense that books do something similar.