Whole Foods Market Inc. continues to roll out technology designed to speed up customer purchases.
This time, the Austin region is one of the first in the country outfitted with tech that allows customers to pay with the palm of their hand.
Amazon One is making its Austin debut at South Austin’s Arbor Trails Whole Foods Market, located at 4301 W. William Cannon Dr. Customers can begin using Amazon One at Arbor Trails starting April 19. The technology will be added to all seven Whole Foods Market locations in the Austin area in the coming weeks. Locations include The Domain, East Austin, Lamar, Gateway, Bee Cave and Cedar Park.
The program first took off in Seattle, home to Amazon.com Inc. headquarters. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) acquired the Austin-founded grocer for $13.7 billion in 2017.
Amazon One allows customers to link a card to their palms, then they can hover one or two palms over a machine for payment. This expedites the check-out process as customers can avoid searching for their payment methods.
Customer data is safeguarded, using protections by multiple security controls and by never storing palm images, Amazon said. Images are encrypted and sent to a highly secure area custom-built for Amazon One in the cloud used to create customers’ palm signatures.
Locations for Amazon One are chosen by a variety of factors that Whole Foods Market did not disclose. Whole Foods Market employs more than 3,000 people in Austin, making it the city’s No. 14 largest Austin-area employer, according to data from 2021.
Elsewhere, Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology is being tested at Whole Foods locations in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. The tech uses AI and computer vision to allow customer to grab items off the shelf and go, without waiting in the checkout line.
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