American grocery stores are fighting tooth and nail to be at the top of the food chain. Walmart, though, has been working overtime, and its customers are starting to take notice. The big-box retailer has launched exclusive celebrity food lines and revamped its bakery selection. And a total of 650 Walmart stores will be remodeled this year, showcasing increased inventory selection and new interior designs. But what really has shoppers buzzing is Walmart’s hidden grocery barcodes.
On TikTok, Walmart shoppers are gobsmacked over the grocer’s secret Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) labels, which are invisible to the human eye. In a viral TikTok, user @beatsbycait showed that you can now point the scanner anywhere on a Great Value item and it will register on the kiosk—even if you aren’t scanning a visible SKU code.
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“I thought I was tripping,” wrote one TikToker. Another chimed in, “I knew I wasn’t crazy.”
“Is this real?” asked a third.
“I work in printing and prepress. It’s called Digimarc. It’s really cool how it’s embedded in the art itself in each layer,” commented an expert.
“So I’m not crazy,” quipped another TikToker and fellow Walmart shopper.
And the answer is no, you aren’t going crazy. Great Value products (Walmart's in-house label) are now marked with barcodes made from invisible ink that are only detectable by imaging cameras, like those used at self-checkout. The digital identifiers are the brainchild of Digimarc, an Oregon-based software firm whose technology helps with shrinking and supply chain traceability.
In Walmart’s case, the purpose of these hidden barcodes is to streamline the checkout process and cut down on theft. After all, it’s much harder to steal a bag of tater tots when they’re secretly inked with multiple SKU codes that can be picked up from any angle.
So, how does the technology work? Essentially, products are “printed all over with hundreds of barcodes without disturbing the package design,” explained Digimarc in a news release. This allows employees and customers to effortlessly scan items without having to go on a scavenger hunt for the traditional black and white barcode, which is usually located in an obscure place. More importantly, Digimarc barcodes make it more difficult for shoppers to skip scanning items at self-checkout.
“The scanning speed goes up significantly according to Digimarc technology partner Datalogic. Hunting for barcodes during the scanning process becomes unnecessary, which eases the self-scanning for customers,” said the company.
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Additionally, Digimarc barcodes make it so that image-based scanners can register several items at once. This means, hypothetically, you can place a frozen bag of veggies, salad kit, and bread in front of the camera, and it would scan everything simultaneously, compared to scanning each item individually.
“The investment should pay itself back quickly through savings in labor costs,” per Digimarc. They also “have an advantage over classic barcodes in that they can hold more information than just the EAN/UPC code that GS1 provides for identification of products. For example, it is possible to include additional marketing information on the packaging.”
Walmart first began rolling out Digimarc barcodes on its Great Value items back in 2019. The two companies expanded their partnership in Dec. 2022, with a multi-year contract worth over $8.5 million.
“Walmart is a forward-thinking technology leader with an unwavering focus on customer experience. We are thrilled to expand our partnership with them and look forward to sharing more details about this expansion in the coming months,” Digimarc CEO Riley McCormacksaid at the time.
Digimarc barcodes are also being used on Wegmans’ private-label merchandise.
