Amazon’s “Palm Pay” technology is expanding to 65 Whole Foods stores in California. These checkout devices will begin appearing in 2020 as part of the Amazon One payment service. Now, the retail giant is expanding palmprint payments to Whole Foods stores in Malibu, Montana Avenue and Santa Monica.
If needed, customers will be able to register their palm prints and associate Amazon One settings through kiosks or select locations.
The launch of Amazon One is said to be one of the company’s latest efforts to improve the in-store interaction experience for retail customers. With access to Just Walk Out stores, it can further speed up checkout.
But in addition to its own stores — such as Amazon Style, Amazon Go and Fresh fresh produce stores in Glendale — Amazon is also working to expand the palm-print identification technology to outside locations.
The latest to embrace Amazon One include multiple Whole Foods locations in Los Angeles, as well as Austin, Seattle and New York area stores that are testing it.
To allay concerns, Amazon has made it clear that images taken at self-service terminals are not kept locally on the device.
Instead, they are encrypted and sent to a dedicated Amazon One cloud server, where a recognizable palmprint signature is generated.
The data shows that Amazon has indeed succeeded in convincing millions of customers to voluntarily submit their data in exchange for a more convenient lifestyle.
