Bar codes....

[jmowreader]

3. No. That's not how it works. At all.

Get a product and look at the UPC. You'll see four sets of numbers.

The leading digit describes what kind of a barcode it is--most products have 0 there. 2 is used on items sold by weight, and is generated at store level.

The first group of five digits is the Company Prefix. Each company gets one, no matter where its products are made. These come from a firm called GS1.

The second group of five digits is the Item Number. The company creates these numbers themselves.

The last digit is the checksum digit.

There's no country of origin labeling in the UPC.