Prepare yourselves, apartment dwellers – Amazon has just unveiled Hub, the holy grail of mail delivery solutions for those who live in shared residential buildings.
The innovative solution has seen Amazon make headlines for the second time in a week after CEO Jeff Bezos was briefly the richest man in the world. With Hub, the e-commerce giant is setting out to tackle one of the greatest annoyances that apartment living presents – the inability to receive any deliveries that exceed the size of a small envelope when you’re not home.
From the outside, Amazon’s Hub appears to be just a big metal box fitted with little compartments and seems rather unrevolutionary. But this big metal box is, in fact, the solution we’ve been waiting for. Never again will you sigh at the discovery of a ’missed delivery’ note in your mailbox and gone are the days of waiting all week for your personal timetable to match the post office’s opening hours.
So, how does it work? The Hub solution comes in the form of an enhanced version of Amazon Locker, which required you to pick up packages from registered locations such as 7-Elevens. The Hub will sit in the foyer or just outside of your apartment building, a key detail that eliminates the need to spend time travelling to get to your mail.
Safe and secure inside the Hub, your mail will wait patiently for collection. You can access it by entering you unique pickup code into the touchscreen panel and voila – the little door will pop open and your parcel can be retrieved. And the best part? It’s open 24/7 so there’s no need to worry about frustrating opening hours.
The Hub is not exclusive to Amazon deliveries but can receive and store mail from all carriers. However, if you do have any issues with the Hub and need to speak to someone, you’ll be in the trusty hands of Amazon’s renowned customer support.
For residents, there’s really no downside to having a Hub in the building – quite the contrary. Developers, architects and interior designers, on the other hand, may be troubled by the idea of a great big Hub imposing on their foyer’s delicately-composed equilibrium. Luckily, Amazon thought about this and created the Hub with a number of design and colour options including indoor and outdoor versions, allowing it to integrate seamlessly (well, almost) into the apartment building’s vibe.
We’re all on board for Amazon’s continuing effort to ease the logistics of the delivery chain's last-mile if it makes apartment living easier. Now, all we can do is hope that building owners invest in an Amazon Hub to smooth over the delivery problem once and for all.
Images from hub.amazon.com
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