Today, Panera Bread announced its planned rollout of Amazon One as a loyalty identification for MyPanera, its industry-leading loyalty program with 52+ million members, and a contactless payment method.
On March 22nd, 2023, Panera Bread announced their collaboration with Amazon to begin using their Amazon One Palm scanners in their restaurants. The Amazon One Palm Scanners have already expanded to various Whole Foods locations, stadiums, and airports.
The bakery-cafe chain, which has long been considered a leader in restaurant technology, is the latest restaurant to use what the tech giant has dubbed Amazon One. It’s already been implemented in dozens of Amazon-owned Whole Foods locations, Amazon Go stores and some stadiums and arenas. (CNBC)
Panera will be the first restaurant to make use of the palm-scanning technology. The palm scanners will initially be used at two of its restaurants in St. Louis, Missouri before likely expanding to additional locations in the near future. This announcement comes just a day before J.P. Morgan’s announcement of its own foray into biometrics payments via the scan of the face or palm which I wrote about in my article here.
As usual with these technologies, ease of use and convenience are the major selling point with Panera’s CEO, Niren Chaudhary, stating that it “provides another level of convenience and personalized service” (Yahoo News). The technology is meant to bring a more “personalized touch” to the experience of Panera customers through tailored meal recommendations, and giving workers the opportunity to greet customers by name, communicating current rewards and more.
Amazon One will bring an even more personalized touch to the Panera dining experience. Guests who link their MyPanera account to Amazon One will enjoy the convenience of fast payments, as well as tailored meal recommendations from Panera associates based on their preferences and previous orders. After a simple scan of the palm, Panera associates will be able to greet guests by name, communicate their available rewards, reorder their favorite menu items, or take another order of their choice, extending the guest experience into a true and meaningful relationship. When they are done ordering, guests can simply scan their palm again to pay.
As I’ve stated in the past, I believe that technology such as this may serve as a means of getting people comfortable with this type of system (i.e. paying with your hand and/or face) before its ultimate fulfillment during the tribulation.
- Amazon One Palm Scanner Expanding to Whole Foods Stores
- Amazon One Palm Reader, an Alternative to Traditional Payment Methods?
- Amazon Envisions Paying with your Hand
We know from Revelation 13:16-17 that during this future period of time, there will be a system where individuals will need to have a “mark” on their right hand or forehead in order to participate economically in society.
With this in mind it shouldn’t escape our notice that we’re seeing technology that resembles this system coming into existence now although it’s important to be clear that this technology or others similar to it is not the mark of the beast. From scripture, we’re clearly given the context as to when the mark of the beast will come to ultimate fruition – during the 7 year tribulation.
Until the “beast” (the antichrist) himself shows up on the world stage, there will be no “mark of the beast”. I delve into this in-depth in my article, Does the Mark of the Beast Currently Exist?. However, as we see technology and systems that seem to resemble it become more prominent in our time, it should show us how close this portion of the bible is to being fulfilled, and even closer, the rapture of the church.
Ultimately, this should serve as a means of encouragement for the believer as we see our blessed hope draw near (Titus 2:13) and evidence for the skeptic that God’s word is true and should be trusted.
Panera continues Loyalty Innovation as First National Restaurant to Use Amazon One for Loyalty Identification and Payment
Panera Bread: The technology is deployed at select bakery-cafes in Panera’s hometown of St. Louis with plans to expand to additional locations in the coming months. Panera is the first national restaurant company to use Amazon One as both a way for guests to pay and access their loyalty account with their palm.
Amazon One will bring an even more personalized touch to the Panera dining experience. Guests who link their MyPanera account to Amazon One will enjoy the convenience of fast payments, as well as tailored meal recommendations from Panera associates based on their preferences and previous orders.
After a simple scan of the palm, Panera associates will be able to greet guests by name, communicate their available rewards, reorder their favorite menu items, or take another order of their choice, extending the guest experience into a true and meaningful relationship. When they are done ordering, guests can simply scan their palm again to pay. Read More
Amazon’s palm-reading payment tech is coming to Panera Bread
TechCrunch: Amazon may be closing a number of its high-tech physical retail stores in recent days, but some of the technology it developed for those stores is finding a new home. The online retailer said today that Panera will now become the first restaurant to deploy Amazon’s palm reading payment and loyalty system, known as Amazon One, in its own stores, allowing its customers to both pay as well as access the chain’s loyalty program.
Currently, Panera has the Amazon One system deployed at two cafes in its hometown of St. Louis, but Amazon says the system will expand to other locations in the months ahead. Panera tells us this includes additional cafes in the St. Louis area and other Seattle markets to start. By year-end, it expects to have 10 to 20 locations live with the technology.
Leveraging computer vision technology, the Amazon One system creates a unique palm print for each customer, which Amazon then associates with a credit card the customer inserts in the sign-up kiosk upon initial setup. If the customer also has an Amazon account, that is also associated with their Amazon One profile information. The palm print images are encrypted and secured in the cloud when the plan signatures are created. Read More
Sources
- Panera Bread palm scanners ‘provide another level of convenience, personalized service’: CEO (March 25th, 2023) – Yahoo News
- Panera Bread will use palm-scanning technology for its loyalty program (March 24th, 2023) – CBS News
- PANERA CONTINUES LOYALTY INNOVATION AS FIRST NATIONAL RESTAURANT TO USE AMAZON ONE FOR LOYALTY IDENTIFICATION AND PAYMENT (March 22nd, 2023) – Panera Bread
- Amazon’s palm-reading payment tech is coming to Panera Bread (March 22nd, 2023) – TechCrunch
- Panera Bread tests Amazon’s palm-scanning technology in St. Louis (March 22nd, 2023) – CNBC