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Amazon UK's first checkout-free Fresh grocery store opens in London
Amazon has opened its first checkout-free Go grocery store in the UK in the West London borough of Ealing.
Amazon's first big 'Go' grocery store opens in Seattle with 5,000 products
Amazon's checkout-free Go concept has officially morphed into a supermarket. Amazon Go Grocery opens in Seattle today, with 5,000 items for sale across the 10,400-square-foot premises. Using a range of cameras, shelf sensors and software, shoppers can pick up the items they want and simply walk out the door -- their accounts are charged via a smartphone app as they leave.
Amazon may open checkout-free supermarkets early next year
There have been plenty of rumors about Amazon's plans to shake up the grocery industry with cashierless stores. The latest is that Amazon plans to launch checkout-free supermarkets in the first quarter of 2020. The company may also license its Amazon Go cashierless tech to other retailers, a person close to the project told Bloomberg.
Amazon may may offer cashierless Go tech to movie theaters and stadiums
Even if it doesn't open the stores itself, you could see Amazon-style cashierless stores proliferate across the US. According to CNBC, Amazon is in talks with a variety of merchants, including movie theatres, airport stores and sports stadiums to license its Go technology to those companies. Specifically, CNBC says Amazon has approached OTG's CIBO Express and Cineworld's Regal Theatres about potential partnerships. The company could also license the tech to concession stands at MLB stadiums.
Domino's tests cashless stores and deliveries
Domino's is testing cashless stores, with customers only being able to use their card, contactless payments (like ApplePay or Android Pay), PayPal and Instagift cards to buy their pizzas both in store and when they have orders delivered. The trial is running at five locations in Australia.
Amazon Go stores will start accepting cash
When Amazon Go stores first popped up, they promised the "future of shopping": a cash-free experience in which you simply grab what you want and leave as the items are automatically tracked and charged to your account. Now, it appears customers will be able to choose between that futuristic convenience and tried-and-true currency. An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC that Amazon Go stores will begin accepting cash.
Philadelphia is the first US city to ban cashless stores
Philadephia has passed a law requiring almost all businesses to accept cash payments, effectively banning cashless stores. It comes into force July 1st, and businesses which violate it face a fine of up to $2,000.
New York’s next Shake Shack doesn’t want your cash
Shake Shack is opening a new location later this month in New York City that will play host to a few functional experiments, CNBC reports. The upcoming Astor Place burger joint is going the self-checkout direction and will have digital kiosks rather than staff who take customers' orders.
South Korea tests prepaid cards to replace pocket change
Coins are a pain in more ways than one. You probably don't like fishing for change, of course, but they're also expensive to make (the US loses money on every penny) and require mining that hurts the environment. Wouldn't it be good to get rid of coins altogether? South Korea is trying just that. The country is starting a trial that could lead to a coinless society. As of April 20th, shoppers at several stores (Seven Eleven, CU, E-Mart, Lotte Mart and Lotte Department Store) can deposit their change into mobile and prepaid cards. If you need to pay with cash, you can stick with paper notes instead of lugging around coins that you're unlikely to use all that often.
Sweetgreen will stop accepting cash payments in 2017
Money makes the world go around, but it's not always necessary to have greenbacks in your pocket any more. Healthy fast food joint Sweetgreen has revealed that it's going to stop accepting cash payments at the majority of its stores in 2017. The company told Business Insider that health fiends looking for some greenery will need to have a credit card or smartphone in order to buy anything.
Britain now prefers cashless payments to notes and coins
It's taken a while, but the UK is now primarily cashless. No, it's not all-digital, but for the first time, consumers and businesses are making more payments with cards, smartphones and online banking than standard notes and coins. That's according to the Payments Council, which found that 52 percent were completed without physical currency, with debit cards accounting for almost a quarter (24 percent) of all payments.
Thousands of laundry machines, parking kiosks and more get Apple Pay
Checking out at the super market with your phone is old hat. But topping off the parking meter, now that's kind of interesting. USA Technologies, a company that handles cashless payments, announced that about 200,000 of its points of purchase will accept Apple Pay. And we're not just talking about NFC vending machines here. This company is outfitting laundromats, parking kiosks and "other self-serve appliances" with the payment terminals. This means that on top of paying for your next tank of gas or grocery trip, you won't have to futz with loose change to do a load of whites or feed that meter.
Editorial: Square gets the attention, but credit cards rule
Lower Manhattan, Pearl Street, the Financial District. A Starbucks with broad windows, great for people watching. Sipping my $5 flavored coffee, I watched a homeless man sit on the sidewalk. I liked him immediately: his sharp gaze and thoughtful expression. When I left, I squatted down next to him and put five bucks in his jar, contributing the cost of my first-world coffee to the man's case for survival. We talked. He knew his tech, this man of no possessions, describing his favorite productivity gadgets of the past decade, scorning Apple for form over function. He had been living on the street day and night for two years. My five dollars was "huge," he said. I knew that was true only microcosmically. He liked cigars. That's where the cash would go. Meanwhile, Starbucks had recently cut a deal with Square, one of the hottest startup stories of the season, so that people with five dollars to spend on coffee needn't pull out a wallet and ponder their privilege.
MasterCard announces PayPass User Interface SDK, lets devs roll their own NFC payment-enabled apps
MasterCard has been in the cashless payment game for quite a while, and now it's hoping to get more developers on the PayPass bandwagon with its freshly unveiled user interface software development kit. By leveraging the SDK, programmers will be able to bake the firm's NFC payment system, which is compatible with over 70 handsets, into their own Android or BlackBerry OS 7 apps. The kit is free to license and includes API code libraries, documentation, a developer guide, sample code, a white-label reference application and a testing suite. Once apps are created with the SDK, they'll have to go through MasterCard's approval process before they go live. Yearning to code PayPass-enabled smartphone software? Check out the press release below for more details.
PayPal arrives on Windows Phone devices running version 7.5 or higher
eBay's money-exchanging service has brought its payments platform to Windows Phone 7.5 handsets. PayPal's new app lets you send and request cash and check your account details (hopefully while laughing maniacally at your own affluence). A "local" feature will also direct you toward vendors who accept the standard, just remember that NFC supporting handsets don't get here for another few weeks.
MasterCard and T-Mobile to bring NFC payments to Europe in Q3 (video)
Poland and Germany could be the next two countries to get smartphone payments, powered by MasterCard and Deutsche Telekom. The SIM-based NFC solution will utilize the US bank's ClickandBuy service for processing and will be available to T-Mobile customers, rolling out to Poland in Q3 of this year and Germany in 2013. This latest partnership comes on the heels of Vodafone's pairing with Visa, which is also said to be making a push for the German market. What remains to be seen is whether or not there is in fact a demand for mobile payments -- the technology has yet to take off in the US, despite an influx of funding and infrastructure from MasterCard and Google. NFC is no doubt the future of cashless transactions, but it likely remains a few years away from hitting the mainstream, with compatible devices still limited, on both the customer and retail fronts. Hit up the links below for a closer look at DT's push to conquer the European market, one NFC-equipped SIM card at a time. Then jump past the break for a quick intro, compliments of Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann and MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga (the two seemingly random gentlemen that you may have noticed above as well).
Hitachi develops biometric payment system, uses it to sell junk food
Looks like Hitachi has made some serious headway on the biometric payment system we first heard about way back in the halcyon days of 2007. According to the Mainichi Daily News, the company is currently testing its Finger Vein Authentication System internally, with the device serving as a method of payment for vending machines and the like. Once it's proven that employees are able to get their Koala's March and Hi-Chew without incident, the plan is to up the ante, with high precision ID systems that combine finger vein and finger print authentication systems for military use.
Japan to push its whiz-bang handsets overseas
With Japanese handset sales declining pretty much across the board (thanks, lower subsidies!), it follows logic that the government and Japanese-based handset makers would look internationally to pick up the slack. In a rather vague report, we're told that the nation is hoping to push its technologically advanced mobiles in other countries, though it'll have a tough time marketing mobile TV without sufficient infrastructure. One of the token handsets chosen to lead the parade is a Sony-made "wallet phone," which is only described as having cashless technology built in. Color us (very) mildly enthused.
Hitachi, JCB developing biometric payment system
Considering all the companies that have already (or almost) jumped on the cashless bandwagon, it follows logic that another duo of Japanese firms are bringing their own biometric payment system to the forefront. Reportedly, Hitachi and JCB Co. Ltd. are working hand in hand (ahem) to develop a system that would "identify the veins on a person's finger" in order to sync with their credit card or bank data and complete a purchase. As expected, the companies are pushing their creation as a safer and more reliable method of paying for items, and while there's no telling how quickly customers are apt to implement said technology, Hitachi has reportedly stated that it would "launch an experiment in September involving 200 of its employees to see if it is commercially viable to introduce the system in shops, banks and other businesses."
Specifications for cellphone payments announced
Payments by cellphone are obviously a hot area right now, with everyone from SanDisk and Philips to Visa and Nokia to PayPal getting into the game. And if you needed any more proof that it is for real, the NFC Forum (that's Near Field Communications, for anyone not versed in the lingo) have just announced the first five specifications for cashless payments by cell, although the full specs will only be available "sometime between July and September." What we do know is that the NFC's architecture will include specifications that define a modular NFC device, as well as protocols for interoperable data exchange, device-independent service delivery, device discovery, and device capability. That also includes specifications for smart posters or other advertising, which contain embedded tags that can deliver content to cellphones. And, unlike some other standards committees, the NFC Forum has most of the major players in the industry on side, so it doesn't look like we'll see much controversy over these specifications.
