2017Issue4_Alabama_v3_COVER

OUTSIDE THE BOX

Research company

PYMNTS.com

said cash

purchases are on track to hit $3.5 trillion

by 2020. While consumers in the 35-44 age

group are increasingly using card and mobile

payments, younger millennials show a higher

propensity for cash.

If you’re wondering what your

employees are up to, a Stockholm-

based tech startup called Epicenter

has developed microchips the size of a

grain of rice that can be implanted by

syringe between the thumb and index

finger. It sounds like something out of

1984 but the chips function as swipe

cards to open doors, operate printers

or even buy a smoothie with the wave

of the hand. The idea is so popular at

Epicenter that workers hold parties

for those being implanted.

While everyone is partying, it does

raise some security and privacy issues

since it shows how often an employee

comes to work, what they buy and

where they go.

If you’re tired of hearing about millennials, you now have Gen Z to worry about. Also

called the iGeneration, post-millennials, plurals or the Homeland Generation, the group

includes people born roughly between 1995 and 2015, meaning that the oldest members are

graduating college or starting careers while the youngest haven’t yet entered kindergarten.

According to some observers, Gen Z consists of about 60 million people, making it larger

than the baby boomers and millennials. While there is considerable debate over where

these people fit in demographically, they all have one thing in common – none of them

have lived in a world without the Internet or mobile phones.

KING

DAY

of the

CYBORG

Starbucks is testing a location at its headquarters in Seattle where

employees can only order via the chain’s app. Customers can

see their orders being made through a window where they can

also pick it up. One has to wonder if it will really speed up the

painfully slow process of getting a cup of coffee. While this is

designed to speed up service, the chain is working on its Reserve

stores, high-end coffee shops designed for lingering, and offering

small lot coffee beans, and food from a local Italian bakery.

NOT REGISTERING

CA$H

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