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Amazon's Coachella delivery lockers will help you get more sunscreen
The Coachella music festival is known for pampering fans with treats, but they'll now have one of the ultimate creature comforts: online deliveries. Amazon is making multiple Lockers available at Coachella on both weekends (April 12th-14th and April 19th-21st), giving you a way to pick up online orders while you're still at the venue. If you run out of sunscreen or lose your phone charger, you might not have to leave or shop from a pricey on-site vendor.
Amazon's QR-like 'SmileCodes' are the key to discounts and Lockers
Amazon will start rolling out its own version of QR codes, TechCrunch reports. Called SmileCodes, they function just like a typical QR code -- scan it with your phone and see where it leads -- but they'll only be scannable through the Amazon app and, naturally, they feature the very recognizable Amazon smile right in the center. According to TechCrunch, Amazon has been piloting them for the past few weeks in pop-up shops and Amazon Lockers in Europe and next month, SmileCodes will hit the US. They'll debut in magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Seventeen.
Morrisons to open 'hundreds' of in-store Amazon Lockers
In the UK, Morrisons and Amazon have become unlikely allies. After partnering up on Amazon Pantry, the supermarket chain has revealed new plans to open "hundreds" of Amazon Lockers inside its stores. The complete roll-out will be "the UK's largest collection" of pick-up points, it claims, giving Amazon customers another useful place to retrieve their online orders. Morrisons will be hoping to lure these fly-by shoppers into making additional purchases in-store, thereby boosting its own revenue. It's a bold, but sensibly strategy -- if you're in the supermarket already, doesn't it make sense to pick up some supplies before heading home?
Amazon delivery lockers now also accept returns (updated)
You're not the only one who's ever bought silly things from Amazon while drunk. Good thing Amazon has several return methods, the newest of which lets you send back that banana slicer through the company's strategically placed delivery lockers. According to The Wall Street Journal, the e-commerce giant will now let you return duds that way, so long as you get a drop-off code from its Online Returns Center first. You'll need that code to open a cabinet on the locker, where you can stick in a box (up to12x12x12 inches in size) that holds and conceals your embarrassing purchase. The WSJ says this move could save Amazon some serious cash, as up to a third of online purchases are usually returned and shipping's one of the company's biggest expenses. After all, carriers can retrieve items and deliver new orders at the same time whenever they visit a location. Unfortunately for customers, Amazon charges the same amount for locker returns as it does for UPS drop offs. We imagine it's still a welcome development for folks who live or work near one of those lockers, though -- whatever makes it more convenient to send back that Borat mankini, right? Update (April 2, 2014): An Amazon spokesperson told us that the company's been accepting locker returns since July 2013, so this might be old news for some. if you've heard it here first, though, you owe us a beer.
Google buys BufferBox, might give Amazon Locker a run for its money
Google has just snapped up BufferBox, a Waterloo, Ontario-based startup that offers temporary lockers for online purchases much like the ones recently deployed by Amazon. Instead of 7-Elevens and RadioShacks however, the relatively young startup has only just started a deal to install parcel kiosks in Canada's Metrolinx GO Transit stations. The Mountain View company hopes to keep BufferBox alive through the acquisition, with plans for 100 kiosks in Greater Toronto and Hamilton in the next year. Of course, we can't help but think this could all be part of Google's master plan for a rumored same-day delivery service that might make Amazon a touch nervous. Hopefully this means future Nexus deliveries will be a just little faster, eh?
Amazon Lockers hit 7-Elevens in Washington DC, let you grab your parcel and a Slurpee
The convenience of shopping at Amazon just got bumped up a few notches in the Northern Virginia sector of Washington DC. Folks who swear their delivery person never rings the bell before dropping off packages will be pleased to know that Amazon Lockers have popped up at multiple 7-Elevens around the region. As Zatz Not Funny notes, Amazon has yet to officially list the market under the service, but at least four locations are searchable -- and the site did find one more that's currently off the radar. If you're eager to get a glimpse of the P.O. Box-esque units for yourself or get access on your account, you'll find more info at the source links below.
Amazon lockers come to NYC, no more getting caught by UPS in your PJs
First Seattle, then London, now the Big Apple -- Amazon's delivery lockers are starting to pop up all over. As we've explained before, the lockers are basically giant, automated PO boxes, designated exclusively for Amazon purchases. If you choose to add a locker location to your address book (go check your account settings to see if the option is available to you yet), your package will be crammed into one of these kiosks and you'll be given a code to unlock a particular slot at the location of your choice. So far there are eight scattered around Manhattan in Rite Aides, D'Agostinos and Gristedes. We haven't wandered out of our secret lair to get photographic evidence of the drop off locations yet (we prefer to have our Amazon purchases left at the gate under the watchful eye of a turret), but we think the screen shot we took is proof enough that we're not pulling your leg. Still, if you're afraid the UPS guy might swing by while you're still in your jammies this seems like a pretty nice solution.
Amazon's 7-Eleven lockers are very real, very gray, slated for Friday activation
After an arduous expedition that must've lasted hours, an intrepid frontiersman in the Seattle area has finally unearthed the Holy Grail of convenience store cubbies -- Amazon's elusive delivery locker, at 7-Eleven. GeekWire's John Cook discovered the prototype lockers at a 7-Eleven in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, where store clerks told him that the system wouldn't be activated until Friday. According to Cook's description, the setup consists of about 40 different sized containers, centered around a keypad and monitor (neither of which was illuminated during his visit). All told, the array of P.O. Box-style cabinets stands about seven feet tall and is completely devoid of Amazon branding. The in-store pick-up program may roll out of a nationwide basis next summer, but you can check out a photographic sneak preview at the source link, below.
