"We were aware of the difference in the bar codes between North America and Europe and, as a result, we, internally, with our point of sales (POS) systems, have accommodated for that, so we don't expect any hiccups for us," said Stephen Bleeker, owner of Bleeker Stereo & TV Ltd. and CD Warehouse.
North American organizations that deal with universal price codes (UPC) must decide if they need to reconfigure their databases to deal with new standards designed to ease the movement of goods in the global economy. Retailers, manufacturers and government agencies in North America have used a standard 12-digit UPC code for the past 30 years to identify their goods.
However, that code only works in North America. The rest of the world works on a 13-digit code, generally called the EAN-13 (European article numbering).
As a result, any international company wanting to sell products in North America has been forced to re-tag its goods with 12-digit codes at added cost. That will no longer be the case when the new regulation, called Sunrise 2005, comes into effect Jan. 1, 2005.
Doug McKeen, owner of Glebe Pharmasave Apothecary, has relied on his point-of-sale supplier to ensure his international goods are accepted at the cash register. The software he is currently using is already Sunrise 2005 compliant.
"Everything is under control, so (it's) great when you have a good supplier of your electronics. Our customers won't even know it's happening."
Rob St-Amour is unsure whether his current system will be able to handle the new 13-digit codes, but knows the system he has just purchased will accept the new codes.
"The new system that we are acquiring in April of next year will definitely be compatible," said Mr. St-Amour, store manager for Hartman's Your Independent Grocer.
Being part of the Loblaw group of companies is helpful, added Mr. St-Amour, since he has an information systems department that takes care of such details.
But while many larger retailers have been making the necessary changes, Nigel Wood is worried about how smaller retailers will deal with the new rules, although they will have time to comply after the deadline, he said.
"We know the big companies are ready," said Mr. Wood, director of industry relations for The Electronic Council of Canada (ECC), who is spearheading the Sunrise 2005 effort along with the council's American counterpart. "We also know that a lot of the smaller retailers will not be ready, so I think the message is really going to be, (on) Jan. 1, 2005, just don't arbitrarily stop what you're doing today. What you need to do is communicate with your customers in North America to ensure that they, in fact, are capable of scanning not only 12 digits, (but EAN-13 digit codes). Is everyone going to be there on Jan. 1? Absolutely not and we knew that."
Some small retailers are out of the loop when it comes to knowing about the changes.
"Industry-wise, we have not received much notification of any changes," said Mr. Bleeker. "There has been very little talk at the grassroots level and the salesperson out in the field."
The wakeup call about the issue will come when new 13-digit bar codes appear and small retailers can't process them at their cash registers, experts say.
"I don't think a lot of people understand the impact it's going to have on their business. From an industry standard point of view, at the higher level of the industry, which would be the wholesalers, the retailers and that sort of thing, it's being talked about, but your independent retailers at the ground level are outside of that loop in most cases and until something actually hits their store, they don't know how to deal with it. They're really not going to be involved, unless they follow the news on the ECC (web site) and see really what the industry is up to," said Dwight Gelowitz, president of Calgary-based IdeaPoint Ltd., a point of sales vendor.
The software Mr. Gelowitz's company sells accommodates 13-digit codes and can handle up to 17 digits in anticipation of more numbers being needed in future.
Small retailers who do know about the changes are likely worried about the cost that may be involved in changing over their system and may avoid the situation as much as possible, Mr. Gelowitz said. The cost retailers pay to fix their systems will depend on what they already have in place.
"I expect that there will be a lot of retailers that are just going to take their hits as they come and if a product is not scannable because they have the new bar code, then they're just going to enter it manually with a price lookup, just because they don't want to spend the money internally."
Getting small retailers to convert their systems will take time, he said.
The final push to enforce the regulations will come when Canada and the United States stop issuing UPC codes, Mr. Wood said, forcing retailers to have the systems in place to accept the new 13-digit codes. He believes it will take less than two years before this will be in full effect.
For now, smaller retailers can take their time to figure out the most cost-effective way to update their point of sales systems.
"The world is not going to come to an end," said Mr. Wood. "The worst that could happen is that they will get a product that has an EAN-13 on it and they won't be able to scan it at point of sale, so they'll have to handle it some other way. Maybe that's what they need, that's what will force them to move forward."
