Amazon is expanding its palm-scanning payment system to a Whole Foods store in Seattle, the company announced Wednesday, the first of many planned rollouts at other locations.
Amazon is now expanding it’s Amazon One palm scanner payment technology to some of its Whole Foods stores in the Seattle area. The technology was already being used in its Amazon Go and Amazon Book stores but this rollout will count as a substantial one beyond this.
The technology simply “allows shoppers to pay for items by placing their palm over a scanning device”. I originally brought attention to Amazon One in this article posted on October 2nd of 2020. Since then it’s caught the attention of many – including myself – due to the prophetic implications it could have.
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) before its ultimate fulfillment during the tribulation. Quantum-dot tattoos, Google’s “SkinMarks”, and recently the Pentagon’s microchips are also worth paying attention to.
He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:16-17)
I want to be clear that I do not believe this technology is 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. Before the tribulation even starts, the antichrist must first be revealed and confirm a covenant for a “week” (7 years).
Until the “beast” himself shows up on the world stage, there will be no “mark of the beast”. 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.
Amazon is bringing palm-scanning payment system to Whole Foods stores
CNBC: Amazon One, which debuted in September and is currently in use at about a dozen Amazon physical stores, allows shoppers to pay for items by placing their palm over a scanning device. The first time shoppers use the kiosk, they have to insert a credit card to link it with their palm print. But after that, shoppers can pay simply by holding their hand over the kiosk.
Amazon One is distinct from the company’s Just Walk Out technology, which allows shoppers to pick up items and walk out of the store without going through a checkout line. However the two technologies can work together, and Amazon employs them both at its cashierless Amazon Go stores.
Amazon will initially roll out Amazon One at the Whole Foods in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, not far from the company’s headquarters, before launching the system at seven Seattle-area Whole Foods in coming months.
The palm-scanning technology will be offered as just one of many payment options at participating Whole Foods stores, Amazon said, and won’t impact store employees’ job responsibilities. Read More
Amazon One’s palm-scanning payments are coming to Whole Foods
The Verge: Amazon One is expanding to its biggest area yet: the company is now testing its palm-scanning payment technology in Whole Foods, starting with a single store in Amazon’s home city of Seattle.
The company has been using Amazon One payment technology in its Amazon-branded stores in the Seattle area (including Amazon Go and Amazon Books), but the Whole Foods rollout will make the most substantial expansion of the technology yet. The company says that thousands of customers have already signed up with Amazon One.
According to an Amazon FAQ, the palm-scanning technology analyzes “the minute characteristics of your palm — both surface-area details like lines and ridges as well as subcutaneous features such as vein patterns” in order to identify a customer, allowing them to use the biometric scan as an alternative (and, theoretically, faster) method of checking out than fumbling around with a credit card or cash.
Customers will be able to register their palms at kiosks in the supported Whole Foods stores, allowing them to associate a physical credit card to that palm scan. (Amazon One users who have already registered may have to re-link their cards once to be able to use them at Whole Foods.) And of course, Amazon One users will be able to link their Prime accounts to their scans to get the subscription service’s discounts when shopping. Read More
Sources
- Amazon is bringing palm-scanning payment system to Whole Foods stores (April 21st, 2021) – CNBC
- Amazon One’s palm-scanning payments are coming to Whole Foods (April 21st, 2021) – The Verge