Lynne Kiesling
According to Chicagoist, Cub Foods stores in Chicago will start using a biometric payment system in November. The Pay By Touch system will enable shoppers to debit their checking accounts through a device that scans your finger, and uses its unique measurements as identification.
The comments on the post are interesting, including melodramatic (and not serious) suggestions that thieves will chop off fingers, etc. The comments touch on the privacy concerns, and the extent to which stores will be able to protect the customer information in the resulting databases. Hopefully the biometric information will be considered similar to, say, ATM PIN and credit card number information.
The first (and only) time I've seen fingerprint IDing at a store is at a local video store (here in the Netherlands). You give them your finger when renting a movie and it automatically charges the rental to your account. Pretty convenient replacement for having to carry another video card around.