CBD Company Looks to Biometric Vending Machines for Distribution

Emerald Organic Products is planning to place its CBD offerings in biometric vending machines after gaining a controlling 51 percent stake in the vending machine manufacturer Bezalel Jewelry. The latter’s biometric machines use facial recognition to match a customer’s face to the photo on an official government ID to facilitate the sale of age restricted products like CBD.

The Bezalel platform currently recognizes IDs from 143 countries. Emerald and Bezalel are hoping to place CBD vending machines in airports, convenience stores, gyms and other public locations, and indicated that they would generate additional revenue through the placement of HD advertisements.

Emerald is best known for the Pura Vida brand, and is pitching the new vending machines as a more convenient alternative that will make it easier for customers to acquire a range of CBD products.

“These advanced vending machines do not require costly salespeople, support staff, and other executives for their operations and inventory control,” said Emerald CEO and Executive Chairman Ian Parker. “They also can operate for 24 [hours] per day, year round.” 

Emerald and Bezalel are not the first companies to leverage biometric technology to automate the distribution of age-restricted products. PanPacific has developed a biometric beverage dispenser with finger vein technology, while a pair of Chinese companies have released a goBox that uses facial recognition to enable naked payments.

Yoti’s digital identity solution has also been used for age verification online and at various UK convenience stores.

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November 12, 2019 – by Eric Weiss