Whole Foods is getting palm-scanning payments via Amazon One

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Amazon is now testing out its Amazon One palm-scanning payment tech in Whole Foods, starting with one store in its home city of Seattle, with another seven Whole Foods locations in Seattle planned in the months to come.

Amazon has already been using the contactless tech in its self-branded stores in the area, but expanding to Whole Foods will bring the tech to even more shoppers.

How many? Well, Amazon says that thousands of shoppers have already signed up for Amazon One, although they didn’t mention how many of that total are active users. Still, not having to carry your wallet or phone because the contactless payment method is part of your body is cool.

Shoppers at the Madison Broadway Whole Foods in Seattle will now be able to enroll in Amazon One, and to leave their cards at home after that. Amazon says that signing up is as easy as inserting your credit card and holding your palm over the scanner, where it will build a biometric palm signature using computer vision tech.

Once set up, it takes about a second to scan your palm to check out, without having to touch anything other than your groceries.

Oh, if you’re already an Amazon One user, you’ll have to re-link your cards to get them working with Whole Foods as well as the handful of Amazon-branded stores in the Seattle area.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.