via techcrunch:
Amazon’s palm-scanning payment technology known as Amazon One is prepared to make a significant expansion across the U.S. The retailer announced this morning the payment tech will come to all 500+ Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market stores nationwide by year-end. The biometric payment system works by having the customer hover their palm above a reader device. The device then identifies the individual’s unique palm signature which is then associated with the customer’s payment card on file in order to charge them for their purchases.
Since the technology’s launch in 2020, Amazon One’s service has been established at more than 400 locations across the U.S., the retailer notes, and has reached a milestone of over 3 million uses. These locations have included Amazon’s own retail stores, including its Amazon Go convenience stores, as well as various sports stadiums, entertainment venues and travel retailers like Hudson, CREWS and OHM at several U.S. airports, in addition to Panera Bread through a partnership announced in March 2023.
Stadiums using the tech include Bridgestone Arena, Climate Pledge Arena, Globe Life Field, Lumen Field, T-Mobile Center, T-Mobile Park, NASCAR Raceway and Texas A&M’s Kyle Field, along with entertainment venue Hollywood Casino at Greektown in Detroit and others.
The system has also been steadily rolling out to Whole Foods locations, ahead of today’s announcement. Currently, Amazon One is available at over 200 Whole Foods Markets in the U.S., including in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. It will now expand nationwide over the last half of the year.
With its expansion to Whole Foods, shoppers won’t need to have their wallet or even their phone in order to make a purchase — they’ll just use their palm to pay, explains Amazon. In addition, Prime subscribers who link their Amazon One profile with their Amazon account will automatically have savings applied as a membership perk.
Recently, Amazon announced the reader would also be able to verify customers’ ages, allowing customers to use the device to purchase adult beverages — like beer at a sports event — just by hovering their palm over the reader. Coors Field was the initial adopter of this version of the system, Amazon said in May. It’s not clear if this part of the system will also work at Whole Foods or if customers will need to show their ID to store staff, as is common with most other self-checkouts.
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