--- title: "Scanners and label printers: what the shop floor needs" description: A scanner speeds up the crate. A label printer makes the older half of your stock scannable at all. What to look for in both. url: https://recordflower.com/blog/scanners-and-label-printers-what-the-shop-floor-needs lang: en author: Recordflower published: 2026-09-21 updated: 2026-09-21 --- # Scanners and label printers: what the shop floor needs A scanner speeds up the crate. A label printer makes the older half of your stock scannable at all. What to look for in both. Scan and Go works with the camera in your phone, and for a lot of shops that is enough. Two pieces of equipment change what is possible: a handheld scanner, which decides how much of the crate gets done on a busy day, and a label printer, which decides whether your older stock can be scanned at all. ## Do you need a scanner Below roughly fifty records a week, the phone is fine. Route A of Scan and Go uses the camera, it is accurate, and it costs nothing. Above that, a handheld scanner pays for itself in the time you stop spending, because a scanner does not have to focus and a camera does. ## Choosing a scanner The Hub does not talk to the scanner directly. Any scanner that behaves like a keyboard works: you pull the trigger, it types the number into the field and presses enter. Look for USB-HID, keyboard wedge or plug and play. There is nothing to install and nothing to configure. Barcodes on sleeves are EAN or UPC, which a 1D scanner reads. A 2D scanner adds QR and datamatrix, so pick that only if you have a use for it. Wired is cheapest and never runs out of power, which suits a fixed entry desk. Wireless with a small USB receiver behaves the same and lets you move. Bluetooth pairs with a laptop, tablet or phone and is the one for walking along the racks. If it has a battery, check that a full charge lasts a full day of the work you actually do. ## Records without a barcode The barcode reached the record industry around 1978, so everything older has nothing to scan. Neither do most private pressings, promos, white labels and test pressings. Then there is the everyday category: sleeves where the barcode is worn away, covered by an old price sticker, or printed too badly to read. For those, the Hub gives the copy its own code. You print the label, stick it on, and from then on the record scans like any other, on the floor and at the counter. The code belongs to the copy and not to the release, so two copies of the same pressing in different condition get two labels. ## Choosing a label printer Thermal, in nearly every case: no ink, no toner, nothing to run out mid-crate. Direct thermal is cheaper to run but fades in daylight over months. Thermal transfer uses a ribbon and lasts years, which is worth it for a back catalogue that sits on a shelf. Beyond that, three things. Width, usually between 25 and 60 millimetres, and a printer that takes a range is more useful than one that does not. Connection, USB for a desk or Bluetooth to print at the racks. And labels: standard rolls are cheap, a proprietary cassette is how a cheap printer becomes an expensive one. If you would rather not work out which rolls fit, ask us. Put the label on the outer protective sleeve, not on the artwork. It stays with the copy on the shelf and comes off at the point of sale, and nothing collectable gets damaged. Whatever you choose, be consistent, so nobody has to go looking for the label. ## At the counter it is a different job The scanner you use to add records is not the scanner that sells them. At the counter the till scans the barcode, you finish the sale as you always have, and the till reports it to the Hub. Your till stays your till, including the scanner already attached to it. Connecting the till is part of Shop and Growth. ## What we can do for you We advise on the equipment that works and order it for you if you want us to, at cost price. We are not a hardware supplier. Advising and ordering are part of Shop and Growth. On Core you buy it yourself, which is what this article is for.