Rapid Change

[haha]

About a year ago Amazon started their lockbox program, where they lease space in 7-11s and some other stores to allow rapid delivery directly to these dropboxes in dense neighborhoods. Right away I joined Amazon Prime, and I have been getting free, secure delivery to a lockbox a couple blocks away for anything that is not too large, which is 85% of what I buy. I think they initially rolled out here and in NYC, though there may be other cities involved too.

But recently they are scrambling to get more leases, as too often there is not a free box to deliver to. I believe that they have recently shortened the time that a recipient has to pick up his package, to get faster turnover. I would guess that there is a fair amount of mathematical and behavioral modeling going on. My guess is that the boxes are assigned to buyers as if everyone who is expecting a package will pick it up at the last minute, although they could cut it tighter at the risk of having nowhere to go with newer orders that were assigned to the box locations. When they have more units, they could fairly safely do this, like the airlines assign seats based on expectations. Looks like are 11 locations in or near Seattle. Mostly close in, but one in Redmond which though suburban has many multifamily buildings. I think they need 100. My last few orders I could not schedule lockbox delivery, even if I tried a few downtown and farther away but still in my area. I guess some of this might be Christmas buying.

Another interesting development involves a partnership between UW, Gigabit Squared, and the City of Seattle, and to be called Gigabit Seattle. It is supposed to bring very much faster broadband internet and also cable TV first to 12 close-in neighborhoods starting next fall. They plan to serve business and research installations, as well as consumers. A later phase is supposed to roll out to more suburban neighborhoods that nevertheless have a good density of multifamily dwellings. This will use wireless signal delivery in part.

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2012/12/13/ultra-high-speed-gigabit-internet.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2012-12-13 gives a quick summary, and here is a more complete announcement from the mayor.

Mayor McGinn » City of Seattle, University of Washington, and Gigabit Squared announce plan to develop ultra-fast broadband network

I hope this happens, as we currently do not have very good service.
Ha

[W2R]

The high speed internet sounds wonderful, Ha. However, I have learned to be happiest once changes like this are in place and functioning, since there are sometimes stumbling blocks. Hopefully all will proceed smoothly in your area.

Having free, secure delivery is nice and I agree that the Christmas avalanche of deliveries has begun. Hopefully your scheduling problems will disappear after the holidays.

It is nice that your neighborhood is receiving these upgrades!

[Major Tom]

Does the Amazon lockbox program offer faster delivery than having a package delivered to your house, or is it of more advantage to people who, for whatever reason, cannot receive packages at home?

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Major Tom Does the Amazon lockbox program offer faster delivery than having a package delivered to your house, or is it of more advantage to people who, for whatever reason, cannot receive packages at home?

It sometimes seems faster, but that is not the main reason I use it. I use it so I don't have to hang around to buzz the ups guy in. Other residents will do it, and i do it for them, but often no one is here. If packages were left unsecured outside the building, they would disappear quickly.


Sometimes the usual 2 day Prime free delivery is upgraded to next day, or even that same night if I make the order early enough. When I get a text saying that something will be delivered, it says by 8 pm. I've never had anything delivered to my building that late, so maybe in cases like this I get it the evening before. And almost always one can get 1 day delivery to a lockbox for an extra $3.99. But that would only be for a gift that I needed muy pronto.

Ha

[audreyh1]

I'm also a big fan of Amazon Prime . I didn't know about the lockbox program - that's cool! Amazon sure is an innovative company.

If you get the super high-speed Internet that'll be great too. I really like being able to watch videos/movies over the Internet on my own schedule.

[MichaelB]

Amazon lockbox is nice. Solves a delivery issue, enables more customers to use Amazon and then subscribe to Prime. Very clever.

I hope the gigabit project is successful.

[Ally]

Thankfully, I've never had any deliveries stolen from our porch, but the lockbox idea sounds great for those who need the service.