SEATTLE -- In early September, Amazon and 7-Eleven Inc. were reported to be testing a delivery-locker system for consumers who purchase merchandise online but need a secure delivery location beyond their home or office. GeekWire.com co-founder Todd Bishop has posted a YouTube video demonstrating the concept.
"The Amazon Locker pilot is testing self-service pickup stations in Seattle, New York and London that offer customers a convenient alternative to home delivery," Amazon.com Inc. spokesperson Michele Glisson told CSP Daily News.
"When the package is actually delivered, the customer receives an email notification along with a bar code to his smartphone and heads to the 7-Eleven," a source with knowledge of the concept told The Daily, which broke the story last month. "There he'll stand in front of the locker system, which looks like the offspring between an ATM machine and a safe deposit box. The machine will scan the bar code on his handset to receive a PIN number. He'll punch that PIN number and retrieve the package."
If tests are successful, the lockers could be in place at 7-Elevens and other retail outlets across the United States by next summer, according to the report.
Click here to read Bishop's full GeekWire report.
Amazon, based in Seattle, is a leading online retailer in categories such as books; movies, music and games; digital downloads; electronics and computers; home and garden; toys, kids and baby; grocery; apparel, shoes and jewelry; health and beauty; sports and outdoors; and tools, auto and industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. It also offers the Kindle e-reader.
7-Eleven, based in Dallas, operates, franchises or licenses more than 8,800 7-Eleven stores in North America. Globally, there are at least 42,700 7-Eleven stores in 16 countries. During 2010, 7-Eleven stores worldwide generated total sales of approximately $63 billion.
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