Amazon One Palm-Payment Option Comes to an Austin Whole Foods

Amazon’s palm recognition technology is now available at a Whole Foods Market store in Austin, making it the first region outside the Seattle area to offer Amazon One as a payment option at a Whole Foods.

The technology is now available at the Arbor Trails Whole Foods at 4301 W. William Cannon Dr., with plans to add Amazon One to all seven Whole Foods locations in the Austin area in the coming weeks. This includes stores at Domain, East Austin, Lamar, Gateway, Bee Cave and Cedar Park.

• See also, First Whole Foods With Amazon’s Just Walk Out Tech Opens

Amazon One debuted at two Seattle-area Amazon Go stores in September 2020, and it launched at a number of Whole Foods in Seattle in April 2021. To use the technology, customers enroll their palm (or both palms) with the Amazon One service and link their credit/debit card. Then, after completing an in-store shop, customers at the checkout counter or point-of-sale hover their hand over the Amazon One device and the card linked to their palm will be charged for their purchase.

“Amazon One is all about making everyday activities, like paying at a store, easier and more convenient for customers. By signing up for Amazon One with a credit or debit card, customers have the option to simply pay with their palm and get through checkout faster. We built Amazon One to offer a quick, reliable and secure way for people to identify themselves or authorize a transaction while moving seamlessly through their day,” Thi Luu, director of product management for Amazon physical retail technology, said in a release.

Amazon notes that the palm images are never stored on the Amazon One device. Instead, the images are encrypted and sent to a secure area custom-built for Amazon One in the cloud.