DALLAS — Amazon is bringing its palm-reading technology to checkouts at Whole Foods Market stores in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Starting Tuesday, customers can pay for their groceries at Whole Foods in Irving and Highland Village with a wave of their hands.
The checkout technology, called Amazon One, will be added to all 16 North Texas locations in the coming weeks, Amazon said.
It’s not Amazon’s just-walk-out technology that also scans purchases, but it is another option for contactless payment.
Some airports with Hudson Nonstop Stores, including Dallas Love Field and DFW Airport, have had palm-reading technology since last year. It’s also available at some sports stadium concession stands, including Texas A&M’s Kyle Field in College Station.
Here’s how Amazon One works:
— Customers enroll their palm, or both palms, with the Amazon One service and link a credit or debit card. That’s done at a store kiosk. Amazon says it takes less than a minute.
— Items are still manually scanned by a cashier, or by the customer at self-checkouts, but there’s no need to dig out cash or a card.
— To pay, hold your palm above the device for about a second or so and the transaction is finished.
Improving the grocery checkout experience has been a longtime industry goal. Self checkout techology has improved in recent years, and retailers continue to tweak it. Sam’s Club Scan & Go app is widely used by consumers ,and some of the technology was developed at Walmart and Sam’s Club tech hubs in Dallas.
H-E-B has been testing “fast-scan” technology at a store near San Antonio in Schertz since July, first by letting employees use it. A month ago, it started using it for customers at that store, The San Antonio Express News reported. Shoppers scan their items with a device as they shop, then check out at a fast-scan station. H-E-B has said it’s a pilot program and there are no plans yet to put it in other stores.
The Amazon One contactless payment system was launched in late 2020 at Seattle Whole Foods stores and is now in stores in California and New York. Whole Foods Market stores in Austin started getting the system in April.
About 160 Amazon and Whole Foods stores have it, including some Amazon Go convenience stores, Amazon Fresh grocery stores and the Amazon Style department store in Los Angeles.
No two palms are alike, and Amazon One vision technology selects the most distinct identifiers of your palm to create your palm signature, the company said.
Palm images aren’t stored on the Amazon One device. They are encrypted and sent to a secure area custom-built for Amazon One in the cloud.
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