Why do cashiers scan Apple products 2 times when you buy them?

[RyanPA]

Why is it when you buy any Apple product at a store (other than Apple) they scan the product 2 times? dumb question but was just wondering 

[DrMacintosh]

I've seen cashies scan my Dr. Pepper twice. idk, ask the guy who manages inventory and the guy who manages sales  

 

Its cot something to do with Barcodes or something

[jeffmeyer5295]

4 minutes ago, RyanPA said:

Why is it when you buy any Apple product at a store (other than Apple) they scan the product 2 times? dumb question but was just wondering 

I've never seen them do this unless it's a cellular device, they have to scan the normal barcode to ring it up and then the IMEI ID. But they do that with any cellular device anywhere generally, not just apple stuff 

[Daveeede]

When I worked at BestBuy, Apple products were some of the few where we needed to scan the serial number in addition to the UPC (Microsoft Surface also comes to mind). I guess at the Apple store they only need to scan the serial number and the system takes care of the rest?

[Lurick]

Serial number + Barcode is all I can think of

[RyanPA]

8 minutes ago, jeffmeyer5295 said:

I've never seen them do this unless it's a cellular device, they have to scan the normal barcode to ring it up and then the IMEI ID. But they do that with any cellular device anywhere generally, not just apple stuff 

I recently bought a pair of AirPods at Target and they scanned 2 barcodes so I think Lurick & Daveeede is right with the serial numbers

[Daniel644]

many electronics have a serial number so first they have to scan the barcode to ring the product in then the register asks them to scan the serial number, this is NOT limited to just Apple Products, you will see it on basically EVERY cell phone purchase and most computers, if you look at your receipt you will see a serial number listed under the item in question on the receipt, this ensures if you try to return it to the store you are returning THAT unit and not another unit, this is to prevent abuse of product returns, like say you buy a computer one day and the day after it's warranty expires it dies so you go back to the store buy a new one (of the same model) take it home, put your dead one in the box the new one came in and you return it and get your money back. scanning the Serial Number prevents you from doing that as the serial number is listed on the unit itself.

[Aprime]

Oh, that's just the Apple tax.