‘By design’: Walmart shopper complains about placement of barcodes on Miller Lite, other beer packs. Viewers are torn
A Miller Lite customer has a bone to pick with the brand. It's got nothing to do with the taste of the beer or the overall quality of the product itself. Rather, her gripe is with Miller Lite's choice in packaging.
According to Rebecca Sears (@rebeccasears12), the Milwaukee-based alcohol manufacturer needs to switch up its barcode placement. In a viral TikTok, she expresses her displeasure with having to maneuver the box awkwardly whenever she scans it in store.
However, there are several TikTokers who disagree with her in the comments section. Her video was viewed over 114,000 times.
Bottom = bad?
"Somebody let me know how we can fix the fact that the barcode is here," the TikToker says before lifting up a case of Miller Lite beer to the camera. She puts it into the trunk of her car.
Sears' problem seems to have to do primarily with the handle and barcode placements on the beer case.
Sears wants to leave the case in her shopping cart and use a handheld scanner to scan the item, which she later further explained in a comment. But due to the placement of the barcode, she has to take the case out of her cart to scan it. "I don’t want to have to pick it up from the bottom of the cart," she later commented. "I wanna use the handheld scanner."
She added in the caption, "I get MAD at the checkout when I gotta pull it all the way off the cart."
@rebeccasears12 I get MAD at the checkout when I gotta pull it all the way off the cart. #miller #drinks #fyp #walmart #psa #annoyed ♬ original sound - TheChaoticTaleOfRebeccaSears????
TikTokers had varying opinions
Some viewers think the barcode placement is intentional and actually makes for easier scanning. "By design the barcodes are on the bottom, u just slide it across the scanner," one said.
"I don’t understand. Pick it up by the handle and slide it across the scanner seems completely sensible to me," another wrote.
"Slide over the scanner?" a third asked.
But others saw Sears' point. "There should be a code on every side," one wrote.
"There should be 2 bar codes. A bottom one to slide across the scanner. A top one so you can leave in your cart and use the hand held scanner," another agreed.
Grocery scanning standards
According to GS1 Standards, there's a method to the madness. Putting the barcode on the right-hand side of a product's back packaging is pretty standard. And there's a reason why.
"Where you put the barcode on your package can impact the ability of scanners to read your barcode. In general, for an item scanned at checkout, you would put the barcode in the lower right-hand section of the back of the package," GS1 Standards notes.
Additionally, businesses are recommended to "allow enough white space surrounding the barcode to ensure a clean scan," according to GS1 Standards.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Miller Lite via email and Sears via TikTok comment for further information.
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