Amazon Brings Palm Payment to the Ballpark

After launching its Just Walk Out cashierless technology at Houston’s Minute Maid Park baseball stadium earlier this month, Amazon announced it is bringing Just Walk Out and Amazon One to Seattle’s T-Mobile Park—the first time both frictionless retail technologies will be featured in a Major League Baseball ballpark.

The technologies will be featured at the venue’s new Walk-Off Market, where the goal is to eliminate lines so Seattle Mariners fans can spend more time watching baseball.

Amazon One, which debuted at two Seattle-area Amazon Go stores in September 2020 and launched at a number of Whole Foods in Seattle in April 2021, allows customers to use their palm to pay for their items. The technology is said to feature custom-built algorithms and be highly secure. This will be first time it’s used in an MLB ballpark.  

The Walk-Off Market is slated to open this summer. It works by fans inserting a credit card at the entry gate or hovering their palm over an Amazon One device to enter. After completing their shop, they simply “walk out” and the credit card they used or linked to their Amazon One ID will be charged for anything they picked up in the store. Customers who don’t have the Amazon One palm recognition service can enroll in less than a minute at nearby enrollment kiosks, Amazon said.

Walk-Off Market will be operated by Sodexo Live and sell Coca-Cola products, snacks, ballpark fare and Mariners-branded merchandise. It will also offer beer (craft, domestic and imports), Northwest wines and ready-to-drink cocktails—though shoppers will be required to show a photo ID when purchasing alcohol.

“The Walk-Off Market is built for speed. From the menu offerings to the store’s layout to Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, everything is designed to offer fans what they want and get them back to the game as quickly as possible,” said Catie Griggs, Seattle Mariners president of business operations.

Sports stadiums have become an attractive spot for technology companies and foodservice contractors to implement new technology.

Last week, San Francisco-based Instacart, in partnership with Aramark Sports Entertainment, unveiled its Caper Counter AI-powered point-of-sale system at Boston’s Fenway Park. The Caper Counter—available at select areas around the Boston stadium, including at the Truly Terrace and Walk Thru Bru—visually detects and identifies items based on their shape, color, key features and sizes. Customers place items for purchase on the Caper Counter where they will be automatically detected and added to the cart for checkout. Customers then select “pay” and choose from either a credit card, loaded ticket or team rewards as their method of payment before going on their way.

As with T-Mobile Park, the goal is a streamlined and seamless shopping experience for baseball fans so they can return to the game faster.  

“On average, Caper Counter decreases transaction times by approximately 65%. We’re excited to continue bridging the gap between in-store and online experiences through our omnichannel solutions and look forward to expanding our partnership with Aramark Sports Entertainment in the future,” Lindon Gao, VP of engineering for Instacart, said in a news release.