Depending on where you live, if you’ve bought something on Amazon.com lately you might have been offered an “Amazon Locker” as a delivery destination. Instead of selecting your home or office address, you pick a nearby locker and it gets delivered there instead – no signature required.

What is this sorcery?! A magic box I can ship things to and it’ll stay safe and not-stolen until I show up to get it?! Well, okay, that sounds incredible – so I gave the Amazon locker a try.

Verdict: Amazon Lockers are awesome.

Here’s why:

Why use an Amazon Locker?

• Discreet – don’t want to ship that embarrassing thing to work? Now you don’t have to!
• Safe – your package doesn’t sit on your porch all day begging to be stolen
• Flexible pickup times – lockers are available as long as the business is open, which in some cases might be 24 hours a day
• Plenty of time – the locker will hold your package for 3 business days (plus any weekend those days might encompass)
• Free – Amazon lockers don’t require an extra fee (or even an Amazon Prime membership)
• Heck, you can even return certain items to Amazon Lockers

I don’t have a reliable, discreet way to receive packages. Shipping to my house sucks because the package sits on porch all day getting cold and/or wet (not to mention broadcasting to every passerby that my house is currently vacant).  Shipping to the office isn’t discreet and there’s nowhere to comfortably keep a package at my little desk. Plus, everyone wants to know what’s inside it.

Design

Amazon Locker was extremely easy to use. Get this:

1. Amazon emailed me a short code
2. I entered it into the touch-screen attached to the lockers
3. The matching locker popped open automatically
4. The locker stayed open until I manually closed it

At 5’8” I was able to reach into even the tallest lockers, but very short people or people with limited mobility might experience some difficulty reaching the top row of lockers, which were face-high for me.

Locker Locations

The locker locations are as (or as in-) convenient as the locations they’re installed in.  See if Amazon lockers are in your location by clicking here.

If they’re not near you yet, just sit tight: Amazon is adding more lockers like crazy right now.  If you want to tell Amazon to hurry up, log into your Amazon account and go to Amazon’s Locker page and suggest your zip code.

I shipped my item to a Rite-Aid pharmacy a couple blocks from my office. Rite Aid’s hours, as well as most other businesses participating in the locker program) go late enough for me to drop by and pick up my package after my workday ends.

My only gripe is the locker I used was positioned in the back of the store.  I actually had to spend a few minutes looking for it – the locker is a huge grey metal structure, but it was around the side of the pharmacy and there were no signs inside the store directing me to it.  Obviously, this is designed so that I walk past a lot of Rite Aid merchandise on my way to the locker… but it wasn’t fun to search the store for the lockers.

Delivery Speed

I placed my order on Monday and my item arrived Wednesday. The estimated delivery was Thursday, but Amazon seems to under-promise and over-deliver as a matter of routine as this happens with packages delivered to my house or office as well.

Amazingly, the locker would hold the package from Wednesday ’til Monday. Amazon promises to keep your package available for 3 business days, but I had six full days to come by and get it.

Any Restrictions?

• Items must weigh less than 10 lbs
• Items can’t be more than 1 cubic foot or so in size
• Can’t be a Subscribe & Save item

Amazon doesn’t restrict use of lockers to Prime customers.

To add a locker to your Amazon.com account:

1. Log into your Amazon.com account
2. Go to “Search for lockers in your area” and type in your location
3. Add whichever locker(s) are convenient to you
4. Next time you order something, that locker will appear as a possible shipping address

PS: If you’re wondering what I bought – it was a flexible Joby camera tripod!

Read More

• Amazon Locker on Wikipedia
• Gizmodo’s Amazon Locker Review

Note to readers: This article is about Amazon.com.  Some of the links are my own Amazon Affiliate links – if you purchase something from Amazon.com after clicking one of my links, a small % of your purchase helps support this site.  As always, I encourage you to shop around and price compare to be sure you get the best deal!