Shopping Cipher

Summary:

Many drugstores, convenience stores, pawn shops, comic book stores, and consignment stores use a text cipher printed on an item or on the shelf tag to indicate the store's wholesale cost. It is a 3 or 4 letter combination where the letters are substituted for numbers to indicate the original cost of the item. The cipher key is usually a phrase or name and allows managers and employees to easily remember the key. The price codes are placed on the item or shelf to allow them to quickly determine any adjustments, for bargaining/haggling, or markdowns without going to a computer terminal.

This Android application lets you type in the cipher text and quickly cycle through a series of cipher keys to determine if the store is using a standard cipher key. If they are then the cost is displayed. In addition to the cipher decode, you are capable of adding and deleting your own keys.

Keywords:
Shopping, Cipher, Comics, Pawn Shop, Convenience Stores, Drugstores