It’s something you take for granted every time you buy groceries and it’s25-years-old today. On June 26, 1974 a bar code was used for the first timein an Ohio grocery store. Hy-Vee Spokeswoman Ruth Mitchell says theinvention of barcodes has been the biggest factor in increasing productivityand efficiency in the supermarket industryBefore barcodes, grocers had to price everything by hand.Mitchell says barcodes may save you even more time in the near future. Hy-Vee hopes you will soon be scanning prices as you shop. .So…what was the first product ever scanned? A 10-pack of Wrigley’s JuicyFruit gum. Twenty-five years ago, it cost only 67 cents.