During my broke college days, I worked as a grocery checker. Surprisingly, it was a job I really enjoyed—I got to talk to all kinds of people and marvel at the weird things they bought. (Like the guy ...

You’ve no doubt removed countless stickers from fruits and vegetables over the decades. Have you ever stopped to wonder what the numbers mean? Perhaps you thought the numbers on fruit stickers were ...

ISBNs, PINs, bar codes, EANs, card and reference numbers - most objects or services available to us have a numeric sequence attached to them. Even the humble piece of fruit gets branded with a number.

When most of us eat fruit, we just peel the sticker off and don’t think twice about it. It’s just a natural part of consuming Mother Nature’s goodies. But how many of us knew these stickers were ...