Hardware above the belt scans the "smart" label ubiquitous on the shipping giant's parcels shortly thereafter.

ENGADGET: Inside UPS' Worldport: How a shipping titan moves 2,000 packages every 17 seconds

And then there are those label migrations that are not so smart.

FORBES: Ballpoint Perfume

But for many years it produced for the private-label market, making shoes that were sold in smart stores like Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and Harrods in London, under the stores' own names.

ECONOMIST: Face value

These spry and smart recordings, known mostly to country completists, appeared on the independent Little Darlin' label Paycheck had co-founded with producer Aubrey Mayhew in 1966.

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