[memracom]

This is why the post office model is superior. The local post office receives the parcel and keeps it safe until you come to pick it up. Nowadays (at least in Canada) these post offices are colocated in pharmacies and other businesses that can spare a bit of space and are open outside of 9-5 hours.

If a Fedex or UPS would buildup a network of similar business partnerships in residential areas (or just rent some space in a shopping mall) then people would use then in preference to this expensive key gimmick.

Why hasn't anyone ever thought of that before? Delivering goods to people in their local shopping mall?

Maybe because Silicon Valley is hung up on disruption and replacement so they never noticed that simply taking over existing businesses could be a lucrative model.

[dingsbumps]

UPS (in the US, at least) does this with a program called UPS Access Points. If you sign up on the UPS website, you can choose to have any UPS deliveries addressed to you (from any merchant!) automatically redirected to a nearby Access Point for pickup.

My local deli is an Access Point. Presumably they're getting paid by UPS for their shelf space, where packages are stored until you come in to pick them up.

[echosmith]

Amazon already delivers to local shops as 'Amazon Lockers' in India. Turns out Americans are lazier, distances are longer, and they want deliveries at home.