Panera Will Soon Let You Buy Sandwiches With The Palm Of Your Hand

Panera Bread is letting customers pay with the palm of their own hands. The new venture partners with Amazon’s palm-paying technology called Amazon One.
 
The process works based on using biometric data to pay instead of handing over paper money, swiping a card, or even flashing your phone over a register. 
 
If the thought of waving your hand and getting a bread bowl frightens you, you’re not alone. When Amazon first announced its One technology in 2020, the Washington Post reported on the possibility that this could put people’s safety at risk. While you won’t be able to identify someone based on their palm, Amazon was linking this information to customer accounts and credit cards.

Regardless, the system rolled out to several Amazon retail locations, including Amazon Go convenience stores, Amazon Go Grocery, Amazon Books, and some Whole Foods nationwide. 
 
Panera’s St. Louis location will be its first restaurant to delve into the initiative. Customers can connect their MyPanera account to Amazon One for deals and offers. TechCrunch theorizes that using biometrics in the store could be more than just what CEO Niren Chaudhary claims as a “natural extension of the tech-forward, guest-centric digital thinking that Panera is known for.” Instead, it might have something to do with wanting to better track and learn customers’ habits. 
 
Whatever it is, the future is here, and it looks like waving your hand and procuring a sandwich and some soup.
 
 
 
[via Mashable and TechCrunch, images via Amazon]