11–20 of 48 posts
It'll be interesting to see Amazon square off against a startup. They've been doing battle with B&M stores, Google and Apple. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with a company several orders of magnitude smaller than them. With the amplifying effect of YC behind them, it'll be interesting to watch.
These lockers are good, but what I think we should really improve is the quality/performance of our mailing/delivery systems. The lockers are just a patch to the existing lame systems. If a company can deliver all days in a week (including weekends) and all time in a day (including evenings and nights), and the delivery men really called before they left a note, that company would win the game.
I also imagine customized delivery times would increase costs and make logistics more difficult. The only place I know offhand that has customized delivery times is Tokyo, so I wonder how they manage. Probably more affordable in a high density area with couriers.
What a perfect solution for peer-to-peer delivery and selling/buying stuff from craigslist! Amazon may have their lockers, but there's plenty of room for this take on use cases that Amazon wont (yet) - run fast!!! :)
This could still be good for small transactions, Craigslist is just too small.
I actually worked with BufferBox this summer as part of my design class. They mentioned that while they and Amazon Locker were breaking new ground here in North America, this type of service is pretty old-hat in Europe. For example, DHL runs their PackStation service in Germany (and apparently in the rest of Europe too) [ http://www.dhl.de/en/paket/privatkunden/packstation.html ]. There are a bunch of other fairly la…
(You might think it's only on the German wikipedia, that's why I think this is worthwhile to post.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was offered local locations (all 7-11s) for an order I placed to the SF Bay Area yesterday, so it looks like SF can be added to that list.
Did you end up getting your order shipped there? I was given the option ship an order to one of the lockers in SF on Monday, but when I tried to select it, I got an error. In any case, it suggests that they should be available in SF soon.
These lockers are good, but what I think we should really improve is the quality/performance of our mailing/delivery systems. The lockers are just a patch to the existing lame systems. If a company can deliver all days in a week (including weekends) and all time in a day (including evenings and nights), and the delivery men really called before they left a note, that company would win the game.
> To rent a PO Box, two different forms of identification are required. At least one of them must be a valid photo ID. [1]
This way they can actually track you down if you have something illegal shipped to the box.
A service like this where you can easily sign up without properly verifying your identity is just waiting to be used as a temporary drop-box for people shipping drugs from SilkRoad, people shipping goods they bought with a stolen credit card, etc.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-office_box#United_States
These lockers are good, but what I think we should really improve is the quality/performance of our mailing/delivery systems. The lockers are just a patch to the existing lame systems. If a company can deliver all days in a week (including weekends) and all time in a day (including evenings and nights), and the delivery men really called before they left a note, that company would win the game.
One of the major problems with carriers is that they are being pushed to drive costs down from retailers who can demand it. Residential deliveries are costly because 50% fail on the first attempt (this is why UPS charges an extra $1.25 for residential deliveries). Shipping is quickly becoming a commodity. Locker delivery enables delivery density (multiple parcels at one stop), saves huge costs compared to traditional…
I think at least they can first call you before they attempt to deliver the package. If you are not there, then just keep the package for the next day's delivery. This will avoid the delivery failure and save time of both sides.