Amazon Is Putting Palm Scanners in a Handful of Bay Area Whole Foods Stores

At least a half dozen Bay Area Whole Foods stores will be getting “creepy Amazon One palm scanners” around the end of this month, SFGATE reports. The outlet says it contacted 13 Whole Foods stores in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley to ask if the locations would be included in the 65 California stores that will receive the controversial contactless payment technology. But because the workers were not authorized to speak with the media, the outlet isn’t reporting which stores confirmed plans to install the devices.

News of the massive statewide palm reader rollout originally came via TechCrunch, which reports stores in “Malibu, Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Santa Cruz” will all be getting the tech. Here’s how it works: customers can register an image of their palm and a payment card at participating Amazon One locations, which will then allow them to make payments by waving their hand over a scanner. For what it’s worth, that might save a whole entire couple of seconds considering customers can already make contactless payments in a number of other ways including with a phone, Apple Watch, via the Whole Foods app, and with some credit and debit cards.

And of course, giving Jeff Bezos and his multinational company access to this biometric data isn’t something all customers will likely be willing to do; earlier this year famed Denver concert venue Red Rocks had to reverse course on plans to use the Amazon tech following pushback from would-be concertgoers around privacy concerns.

Here are the Michelin Guide California: New Discoveries for SoCal

The dining and tire experts at Michelin announced new additions for Northern California back in June and now it’s the southern half of the state’s turn. According to a press release, Michelin added 18 restaurants in Los Angeles to the guide including All Day Baby, Girl & The Goat LA, Horses, and Manzke. Later this fall when the full guide comes out, some will be further designated as receiving Stars or Bib Gourmand status.

Kokak Chocolates

Where to catch this East Bay Mexican ice cream pop-up

Berkeleyside has the story behind Instagram-based ice cream pop-up De La Creamery, which specializes in Mexican flavors such as horchata, cafe de olla, agua de jamaica, and elote made with charred corn and habanero lime jam. Find pints at Tahona Mercado in San Francisco or check the business’s website for pop-up dates and times.

Kokak Chocolates launches new Emoji Collection

Swing by Kokak Chocolates in the Castro for an emotional investment: the company just launched its new Emoji Collection ($21.75), which includes five tropical-inspired truffles emblazoned with a “mix of rainbow emoji faces.”

Mark your calendar for the Andytown garage sale this Saturday

Head to Andytown’s Outer Sunset Lawton location on Saturday, August 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for a garage sale. The company is clearing out its collection of last season and otherwise imperfect (but still functional) goods including “ coffee brewing equipment, thermoses, Andytown-branded clothing, and MORE!”