Seattle baseball stadium to make frictionless shopping first
T-Mobile Park is doing something with checkout-free retailing that no other Major League Baseball ballpark has done.
The Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball franchise, which plays its home games at T-Mobile Park, is teaming up with hospitality partner Sodexo Live to bring both Amazon “Just Walk Out” frictionless shopping technology and the Amazon One palm-based payment system to T-Mobile Park.
The dual deployment will mark the first time both frictionless retail technologies will be utilized in a Major League Baseball stadium. Just Walk Out technology leverages a combination of computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning.
The technologies will be featured at the venue’s new Walk-Off Market, which is slated to open in summer 2022. Customers will have the ability to insert a credit card at the entry gate or hover their palm over an Amazon One device to enter, shop and then leave. The credit card they inserted or linked to their Amazon One ID will be charged for the items they took after they leave the store. The solution uses custom-built algorithms and hardware to create and recognize a person’s unique palm signature.
If a customer is new to using the Amazon One palm recognition service, they can enroll in less than a minute at any of the three enrollment kiosks just outside the store. The Walk-Off Market will be stocked with a selection of alcoholic beverages, Coca-Cola products, grab-and-go snacks, ballpark fare such as hot dogs and nachos, and Mariners-branded merchandise. Shoppers will be required to show photo ID to an attendant when purchasing alcohol.
New York arena features ‘Just Walk Out’
Earlier this month, UBS Arena, home of the New York Islanders professional hockey franchise, became the first New York-based sports and entertainment venue to feature Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology. The frictionless shopping experience is available in two convenience-oriented stores inside the arena.
“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. “We are excited to join with our hospitality partner Sodexo Live! to bring these groundbreaking technologies to T-Mobile Park and do an even better job of serving our fans.”
“We’re excited to work with Amazon to make T-Mobile Park the first ballpark to feature both Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One in the same store,” said Sodexo Live! CEO Steve Pangburn. “The next-gen technology is sure to reduce lines and be a hit with fans, and we’re excited to deploy it at Mariners games this season.”
“We’re thrilled to work with T-Mobile Park and Sodexo Live! to enable a fast and effortless shopping experience for baseball fans when they visit the Walk-Off Market equipped with Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One,” said Dilip Kumar, VP of physical retail & technology at Amazon. “Our physical retail technologies are designed to remove friction for shoppers and make their shopping trips faster and easier, so we’re excited T-Mobile Park is adding these offerings to help their fans get what they need quickly and without missing a moment of the action.”