Tech announced its plan to open a new Amazon Pickup location on Tech Square, taking over the space that was previously occupied by a small Wal-Mart location, known as “Small-Mart” to Tech students, and restaurant 5th St Ribs-N-Blues.
Amazon@GeorgiaTech will be the first Pickup location to open in Georgia, and will be one of the few already on college campuses, including Purdue University, University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of California
at Berkeley.
Amazon’s selection of Tech Square is attributed to its convenience to students, and its surrounding community.
“Technology Square is really the hub of innovation in Midtown Atlanta,” said Rich Steele, Senior Director of Auxiliary Services at Tech. “There are many corporations that want to be associated and affiliated with Tech, but especially at Technology Square.”
The Amazon Pickup location will offer service to anyone from Tech and in the area, and will allow for significantly shorter delivery times than currently offered.
“In the Metro Atlanta Area, there are close to four million products that will be available for the free one-day shipping,”
Steele said.
Members of Amazon Prime will still have one and two hour shipping options.
Tech predicts that the addition will greatly improve traffic through parts of campus. “Part of [Tech’s] goal and part of the benefit of having this location is that it does provides a secondary spot for students to pick up their Amazon packages,” said Steele. “We truly believe that this will significantly reduce the wait time in the Student Center Post Office.”
Tech predicts that the addition will greatly improve traffic through parts of campus. “Part of [Tech’s] goal and part of the benefit of having this location is that it does provides a secondary spot for students to pick up their Amazon packages,” said Steele. “We truly believe that this will significantly reduce the wait time in the Student Center Post Office.”
In addition, Amazon@GeorgiaTech will operate for longer hours than the Student Center Post Office, and they have the potential to expand when there is increased traffic.
It is expected that the Amazon location will operate six days a week with a minimum of 50 hours a week, and will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Packages that are shipped from other sources will still be delivered to the Student Center.
The Pickup location will be almost entirely autonomous, with most of the space being allocated for sorting of packages and putting them into lockers.
Students and other customers will be sent a QR code when their package is ready for pickup, and which they can then use to open the respective locker.
Packages can be ordered on Amazon@GeorgiaTech’s custom website, and will be delivered directly to the Tech Amazon location, effectively bypassing the shipping service.
“[Amazon] is hoping to create a very efficient process, and through that, packages will be delivered quickly,” Steele said.
Tech’s Amazon Pickup will differ from other campuses’ in that it will not be promoting the sale of textbooks, or any other exclusive merchandise that can be found in the campus Barnes and Noble location.
Examples of these product include merchandise with the Tech logo, as well as Apple products that are already offered to students in the Barnes and Noble itself.
It will still be possible to purchase textbooks through Amazon, but it is not a service that will be promoted with regards to the Amazon pickup location.
Students can take advantage of the Amazon@GeorgiaTech location through Amazon Student Prime, which provides the streaming services and discounts of Amazon Prime for half the cost with a .edu address.
The new pickup center is expected to open in preparation for the start of fall term in early August 2016.