The new system will allow a customer to select at checkout a nearby 7-Eleven store for package pickup. The customer would then enter a PIN to retrieve the package from an Amazon locker -- akin to a P.O box -- inside the designated store.
The locker setup was spotted by Geekwire reporter John Cook at a Seattle Capital Hill-area 7-Eleven on Sunday. A store clerk informed Cook that the Amazon lockers would be activated on Friday.
How will it work exactly? Amazon is mum on the matter, but The Daily, citing an unnamed source, has a few details on the prototype in-store package-pickup system.
The customer will receive an email notification with a bar code on his or her smartphone. At the 7-Eleven store, the customer stands in front of the locker system -- a cross between an ATM and a safety deposit box -- and it scans the bar code and then provides a PIN that the customer punches to retrieve the package.
The pilot program, if successful, could be rolled out to 7-Eleven locations across the U.S. by next summer, according to The Daily.
Amazon could not be reached for comment.
