Amazon rolls out ‘Hub’ for apartments
Program will offer safe storage of packages until they are picked up
Not home to receive a package? Amazon wants to do it for you.
The e-commerce giant is rolling out its Hub by Amazon program to accept packages for people who live in apartments and other multi-unit residences. The program has already been running in various cities, including San Francisco, but now Amazon is officially unveiling and promoting it.
The program is similar
to Amazon Locker, which allows online shoppers to have their packages delivered to lockers at grocery stores and other locations.
But the company said Hub will work with “deliveries from any sender” — not just Amazon packages.
Here’s how it works: apartment communities can ask to have Hub by Amazon installed and shoppers can then have their orders and shipments addressed to their apartment as they normally would, according to a news release from Amazon and stores at the Hub. Residents then open the Hub lockers via a keypad to get their packages.
Amazon touts the program as a convenient option for residents and apartment building staff. Residents don’t have to adjust their schedules for a delivery or wait to get their packages from building staff who often accept packages at the front desk. And the apartment’s building staff, Amazon says, doesn’t have to use resources to accept packages or worry about
packages cluttering building lobbies.
More than 500,000 customers in New York and San Francisco have access to Hub, and large property companies, including Avalon Bay, Fairfield Residential, Pinnacle, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Winn Residential, and Equity Residential, have already signed up for the program. Apartment communities who want to request the Hub program can visit thehub.amazon.com.