Amazon expands contactless payment at more Whole Foods stores

Residents of a major U.S. metro area can now use Amazon One palm payment technology at select Whole Foods locations.

For the first time, Amazon is making its Amazon One palm payment shopping experience available at two Whole Foods stores in the Los Angeles market – one in Silver Lake and one in Irvine. Amazon One will also be made available at the Playa Vista Whole Foods Market store in the coming weeks.

Customers at the Silver Like and Irvine Whole Foods stores can hover their palm using the Amazon One palm-based payment system. To sign up for Amazon One, first customers insert their credit card in the palm reading device. Next, they hover their palm over the device and follow the prompts to associate that card with the unique palm signature being built by the device’s computer vision technology in real time. Customers have the option to enroll with one palm or both.

Once customers have enrolled, they can enter Amazon One-enabled stores by holding their palm above the Amazon One device at entry for about a second or so. The technology evaluates multiple aspects of a customer’s palm. No two palms are alike, so Amazon One analyzes all these aspects with its vision technology and selects the most distinct identifiers on a palm to create a unique palm signature. 

Whole Foods customers using Amazon One will shop like normal and at the end of their trip, they scan their palm at checkout to pay. Learn more about how Amazon One works here.

Besides the Los Angeles stores, Amazon One is currently available as a payment option at select Whole Food Market locations in the Seattle and Austin areas, and at the Manhattan West store in New York City. Amazon plans to add Amazon One palm-based payment to all seven Whole Foods market locations n the Austin area in the coming weeks. The recent Austin rollout includes Whole Foods Market stores in the Arbor Trails, Domain, East Austin, Lamar, Gateway, Bee Cave, and Cedar Park neighborhoods.

Amazon One is also available as an entry and payment option at select Amazon Go stores, select Amazon Fresh stores, and several third-party locations around the country. In addition, Amazon licenses the technology to select third-party retailers. Examples include travel retailer Hudson’s deployment at Dallas Love Field Airport, as well as stores at sporting/entertainment venues including New York-based UBS Arena and Amazon’s own Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.

“Amazon One is all about making everyday activities, like paying at a store, easier and more convenient for customers,” said Thi Luu, director of product management, Amazon Physical Retail Technology, said in a previous statement. “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 check out 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.”