Heads up, Whole Foods Fans: Sour new store may present a clear lack of payment lines.
Wednesday, Amazon announced would deploy its “Just Walk Out” technology without a box at two Whole Foods locations that will open next year, one in Washington, DC, and the other in Sherman Oaks, California. The technology uses a combination of sensors and cameras throughout the store to track what shoppers grab from the shelves, so they can “go out” with their groceries instead of waiting at the checkout.
Whole Foodies here if you want to test the feature, you can turn it on as soon as they enter the store, either by scanning their Whole Foods or Amazon app, tapping a credit or debit card linked to their Amazon account, or using the company payment system with palm scan, Amazon One, Amazon said in its ad. After check-in, shoppers can move around the store in the same way as always, and upon leaving, they just repeat the same method of scanning apps / tapping cards / palm reading as they go. use when entering. After leaving, groceries are charged to your Amazon account, leaving customers with an e-receipt that they can access through the Whole Foods app.
Of course, that’s up to you to want use technology. When Whole Foods customers opt forinside to the comfort of going out with theirs groceries, also opt for the mass surveillance infrastructure this makes Just Walk Out possible. Although Amazon has not offered it many details on the specifics of technology, the company patent filings suggest using a combination of RGB cameras, depth sensors infrared cameras and sensors to monitor all aisles through which a customer passes and all items they collect or deposit, even if they do not store it in the cart. Other data collected includes your shopping history, your credit card details and who knows what else.
The good news is that Whole Foods don’t need to opt for this technology if they don’t want to. According to the Amazon press release, people who want to pay in cash, use prepaid cards or gift cards, EBT, eWic or just feel dragged by Just Walk Out can use the store’s ATM lanes or the store’s customer service booths;
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The bad news is that this technology will become increasingly difficult to escape over time. Aside from deploying it in Amazon Go stores this past March and Amazon Fresh stores a few months later, Amazon also signed an agreement last year to begin licensing to third-party retailers. Although he struggles to take off Bye now, we have seen smaller stores in airports i shopping centers pick up Amazon technology for themselves and the company has continued aggressive release technology at ever-increasing outlets. Meanwhile, there have been minor advances launch their own technology comparable to these same retailers in their own weak attempt to compete with the e-commerce giant. And as more and more customers start to fall in the market speed and efficiency that come with purchases without ATMs, it’s only a matter of time before shopping and espionage become synonymous.