Hands-on with Amazon Locker, now working
geekwire.com
geekwire.com
This is another attempt by Amazon to solve the "last mile" problem. Amazon already saves a ton of money on shipping costs by packing their own trucks and driving them from distribution centers (e.g. Fernley, NV) to major metropolitan areas (e.g. Seattle, WA) and depositing them at USPS for final delivery. Amazon could even remove this cost for those people who choose to pick up their packages at (essentially) Amazon PO boxes.
If they're going to send it UPS anyway, why not just send it to your house? I can't imagine there are that many people who would rather have to make another trip to go pick packages up vs. having them left at your door (in most circumstances; there are some instances where it's more convenient to have something put somewhere you can access it 24/7 rather than dropped off, but I imagine those are limited.)
For example:
I live in Boston and a bunch of people don't have cars. If you don't have a delivery service in your building to take and store your packages, they can be left right outside the door which is kind of dicey, especially if you have valuable stuff.
Some people at my office just have all their packages delivered at work, which makes sense. But if you are going to have a ton of stuff delivered, or heavy stuff, it can be a hassle to then lug that back to the subway whereas it might be easier to have it delivered to the 7/11 that is just a block away from your place.
So like I said, it has specific uses. My guess is that the incremental capital spent isn't much to have the locker system, so why not test it out. Low risk - high uncertainty bet on Amazon's part.
I bet focus groups said they hate not being around when ups guy shows up.
Just to show how disruptive it is, the guy ordered batteries and had them shipped to a 7-11 which also sells batteries. I bet 7-11 did not consider cannabolization in their analysis.