Hot button issue! Vending machines selling gun ammunition at Alabama grocery stores
Their vending machines are locked and loaded.
Two grocery stores in Alabama are selling gun ammunition in artificial intelligence-powered “retail kiosks” that scan buyers’ identification cards and faces before spitting out bullets.
The refrigerator-sized machines, located at Fresh Value stores in Tuscaloosa and Pell City, use 360-degree facial recognition to verify a customer’s age and ID in order to make it easier for folks to get firearm ammo, AL.com reported.
“One of the ways we’re changing the landscape of ammunition sales is to make it more available,” a rep for American Rounds, which operates the machines, said in a promo video — which shows the dispenser serendipitously placed next to a cooler of Bang Energy drinks in the Pell City store.
To use the gadgets, which are located inside the stores, a buyer first taps the machine’s screen to choose the kind of ammo they want.
They’re then prompted to verify that they’re over 18 with a government-issued identification card. The device then scans the customer’s face and requests payment before dispensing the ammunition.
“[Customers] are so excited about us having the ammo kiosk,” a rep from the grocery store said in the promo footage.
A customer rolling through the store on a motorized scooter is then shown enthusiastically shouting, “It’s ammo? Whoo!” — before triumphantly raising her fist in the air.
The company plans to set up the vending machines in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas by next year, the American Rounds rep said. The firm is targeting communities where hunting is popular, he said.
The vending machines are legal and approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley told The Tuscaloosa Thread.
