RICHMOND, Va. -- A yellow wall of lockers named “Wallace” now stands in front of a Richmond, Va., 7-Eleven convenience store, holding about 40 locked boxes filled at any given moment with whatever area customers have ordered on the Internet, according to a report in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Amazon.com has offered self-service delivery lockers in major cities such as New York, Seattle and San Francisco, but the option has now been extended to urban Richmond via the 7-Eleven near Virginia Commonwealth University’s academic campus.
The company describes the service as a “secure and convenient” alternative to home delivery, which carries the risk of packages being stolen or going missing before reaching the hands of the intended recipient, according to the report.
When checking out, Amazon customers can choose to have their package delivered to the locker for no extra charge, according to the company’s website.
The customer is then given a code to punch in on the locker’s keypad when the package is ready for pickup. Customers have three days to retrieve their package once it arrives at the locker or it will be returned to Amazon and the purchase refunded, according to the website.
Because not everything sold on Amazon can fit in a locker, purchases must weigh less than 10 pounds and meet other size restrictions. Items also can be returned through the service.
An Amazon spokeswoman said the lockers were first introduced in Virginia in mid-2012, but declined to provide details on how many exist today.
“While we don’t discuss specific numbers when it comes to our lockers, we are excited to have added lockers in the Richmond area,” company spokeswoman Nina Lindsey told the newspaper.
7-Eleven Inc. and Amazon began testing the delivery-locker system in 2011.
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