On Aug. 1, Three Square Market will throw a “chip party,” where employees can insert the $300 microchips, provided free from management. About 50 of 85 employees are expected to accept the company’s present. (Chips and salsa will be served.)

The Radio Frequency ID chips, as they’re called, could also function beyond the office. If Timmins got the implant, she could use it to buy snacks at shops or vending machines that support the technology.

People have long tagged pets. And businesses regularly use chips to track shipments. Implanting employees, however, still sounds like an idea out of science fiction.

Tony Danna, Three Square Market’s vice president of international development, has no privacy concerns. He asked: Weren’t people worried about cellphones?

Last month, Danna, 28, visited Epicenter, the start-up hub home to Biohax Sweden, and met the brains behind the chips. A worker there was first chipped two years ago, and now about 150 employees have the implants.

“How do I get one of these chips in my hand right now?” Danna recalls wondering.

For him, the appeal is convenience.

“I don’t want to have to carry my wallet or passport or car keys,” he said.

Timmins, the sales associate, likes the idea of being first. Of beating the guys in Silicon Valley and New York City from River Falls, Wis. — population 15,000.

But she’s still on the fence, and not because she thinks her boss or some hacker could secretly track her. Phones these days, she said, already make that easy.

“I’m just concerned about implanting something into my body,” she said. “I’m thinking about infections. Then there’s the other side of me that thinks: This is exciting. Cutting-edge.”