Amazon@Boston Comes to Boston University’s Campus in the Wake of the In-Store Pickup Craze

I wrote this news-enterprise business piece in December 2017 for my Fundamentals in Journalism course. This piece served as my final project/exam in the course.

A simple swipe on Amazon’s smartphone app will buy all the school necessities a student could ever need. But now, Amazon’s latest innovation, Amazon@, will make a robot feel like a student’s neighborhood UPS man; Amazon orders are magically transported out of a conveyor belt locker right into the consumer’s very hands.

Within the last year, Amazon has expanded their relationship with student customers from online to brick and mortar. According to Amazon, these various pickup locations across 50 plus cities allow students to pick up items securely, the same day they order them, and return items with ease. As of October 2016, there were 16 locker locations on college campuses and as 2017 comes to a close, the number will continue to grow.

This past August, the Amazon@Boston system came to Boston University’s campus on Commonwealth Avenue in hopes of further targeting college students. But so far, many students are not flocking to Amazon’s latest college venture, saying they prefer the even easier method of having items shipped right to their dorm or apartment.

Boston University’s Amazon@Boston location is small, so small in fact, that it simply appears like another campus mailroom. John Bojas, manager of the location, said that typically students grab items in an emergency on the way to class. But, with the way that Boston University’s campus is oriented, students feel that picking up from this location is a pain.

“I don't understand why AmazonPrime is all the rage,” said Maddy Mermelstein, a Boston University sophomore.

She later stated that she didn’t see the point of Amazon@Boston, as she feels it’s more convenient for her to have her packages shipped directly to her; She feels this is the point of AmazonPrime in the first place.

In September of 2011, Amazon introduced this locker concept to New York City, Seattle, and London to address worry over packages being lost or delivered improperly. As the initial success heightened, the ecommerce site started small by partnering with select 7-Eleven locations across the country. Now, locker kiosks have over 2,000 locations and Amazon is partnering with universities through its Prime services, while planning on expanding their kiosks into Whole Foods.

In 2015, Amazon struck a deal with Perdue University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and University of California Davis bookstores to collaborate with them on their websites. At these schools, Prime Student Members also have unlimited, next day delivery and access to Amazon@ package distribution locations.

Perdue University’s Amazon@Perdue location was the first locker location to be staffed and from its quick popularity, other universities caught on as well.

Susan Fournier, Senior Associate Dean and Professor in Marketing at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, thinks that Amazon is approaching the brick and mortar space at a backwards, yet interesting path that will impact their competitors: starting online and then going into the tangible storefront.

“What’s interesting is that this relationship was just virtual and intermediated by a laptop. But now, they’re going into the physical. These lockers are going to be huge compared to stores like Target. When Target went from the physical to online, you felt like it didn’t do the same. Amazon hasn't had this problem because they’ve already made you feel good about the online aspect. In these larger spaces like Amazon@Penn, you are able to have a cup of coffee, it has a Starbucks vibe, and cultivates a community. Now, they’re adding a communal element and a whole dimension they’ve never had before,” said Fournier

Sydney Lewis, a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, said the first thing she noticed when she got to college was her Amazon@Penn location.

Located right at the center of their campus, it’s become a campus hotspot, she said. With huge TV monitors, plenty of tables and comfy chairs, Amazon is creating a space for students to pick up their packages, convene with their classmates, and even grab a snack.

At Boston University, the passion for Amazon@Boston is sparse. In a survey of 68 BU students, only 18 said that they used the pickup location.

Madeline Hughes, a Boston University sophomore, said that she thinks the pickup location is pointless, as she, like many others, just wants her packages to be shipped directly to her door.

But, Zoe Hawyrluk, a junior at Boston University, said that she loves the Amazon pickup location because she’s had issues in the past with package delivery and she appreciates the security of it.

Although Boston University doesn’t have this personal component like at Amazon@Penn, Amazon is still working hard to engage with Boston University students by hiring them to be Prime Ambassadors. This past summer, Becca Bucholz, a sophomore at Boston University, started working for Amazon as a Student Brand Ambassador.

In her spare time, Bucholz runs the @AmazonatBU Twitter account and event activations to drive in person and online impressions for Amazon. But even as a rep for the brand, Bucholz admitted that she hasn't even used the pickup location.

Barbara Bickart, Chair of Marketing at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, says that through creating these types of relationships the consumer gets reeled in—fast.

“In marketing, we see a variety of consumer relationships with brands. With Amazon, you are held hostage to them in a way that the relationship isn’t one of love or partnership, but the idea that ‘This is the best deal I have going and I have no other options’. They’re so dominant that you respect them and you feel like it’s something you have to use,” she said

Through creating this dimension of a community in a personal, tangible space and across campuses through rep programs, mass stores that are geared towards students like Barnes and Noble will struggle. Fournier says that this is due to Amazon’s proof of variety, credential, and most importantly, convenience.

Lauren Eyee, a sales associate at Boston University’s Barnes and Noble, New England’s largest Barnes and Noble location, said that Amazon, regardless of where people pick up their packages, has “definitely made an impact” on the traffic of their store.

“Typically, we see that when there is a book in high demand and there is a wait time in restock from our publisher, students will turn away and go to Amazon. The main thing that keeps our traffic now is our apparel because that’s the one thing Amazon doesn’t have,” she said.

In order to try and combat the separate issue of Amazon’s differing prices, Barnes and Noble offers a feature to price match. But for many students, this isn’t enough to reel them back in.

Mermelstein doesn’t see a purpose in AmazonPrime, but she does see a great use for the ecommerce site in finding cheaper textbooks. Now, she says that most of her professors are telling their students to go to Amazon to buy their textbooks instead of Barnes and Noble, even though they both allow the consumer to pick up in store.

Nationally, competitors like Target are also struggling. After it was revealed in 2017 that Amazon was worth more than Target, Costco, and Walmart combined, Target lowered its prices on thousands of items to keep up with Amazon’s price appeal.

A few doors down from Amazon@Boston sits a Target location that came to Boston University’s campus last year with the intention of catering to college students. Both Amazon@Boston and Target have this similar premise, but Target still is a more popular pick for BU students when it comes to brick and mortar. Stephen, a sales associate at that Target location who would not disclose his last name, said that the store is still incredibly successful even though Amazon@Boston sits next door.

Regardless of whether the consumer prefers having items shipped right to their door or not, this concept of in-store pickup is something that Bickart sees as the future of retail, especially in the brick and mortar market. She credits this shift primarily to Amazon’s locker locations and says that this trend will continue to catch on to their competitors.

“What the brick and mortar stores are doing more and more to compete with Amazon’s system is setting up this ability to shop online and pick up at the brick and mortar store, which would give the consumer even more flexibility,” she said.

“People have changed how they’ve shopped even in the past year. At some point, stores are going to have to combine omni-channels because this is a major threat.”