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Is Amazon liable if your packages get stolen? If that is the case, that could explain why they want a "key" to your house. Why else would this do this? Oh, wa

Is Amazon liable if your packages get stolen? If that is the case, that could explain why they want a "key" to your house. Why else would this do this? Oh, wait they are bleeding money. >The amount of money that Amazon lost on shipping — a.k.a. the net cost of landing all those brown boxes on your doorstep in record time — reached an all-time high of nearly $7.2 billion in 2016, according to GeekWire’s analysis of the e-commerce giant’s financial results. I would be curious to see another person's take on how much Amazon loses on people stealing packages per year. [1](https://www.geekwire.com/2017/true-cost-convenience-amazons-annual-shipping-losses-top-7b-first-time/ https://www.geekwire.com/2017/true-cost-convenience-amazons-...)

fossuser 9y ago
The article touches on another reason, with house access they can organize services (house cleaning, dog walking etc.) that require access to the house.
- jethro_tell 9y ago
  Yes, The low liability, ups/usps friendly way to do this is to turn that 7 billion into a bunch of little yellow metal boxes with a key pad. I bet a lot of people who want the convenience would let them screw it to the front of the house or down to the deck
  - reaperducer 9y ago
    They're halfway there. The yellow boxes are in most grocery stores in my area. And there are green ones at Whole Foods. Considering the USPS won't service individual house mailboxes in some parts of the country anymore (only communal mailbox clusters up to a mile away), what's the difference between getting a package from the USPS lockbox, or the Amazon lockbox which is located at a place I was going anyway?
- test6554 9y ago
  House access. A camera in your home. Automated delivery confirmation. Guaranteed correct address. No more delivery to wrong address because the door won't open at the wrong address.
moduspol 9y ago
It's because it's a value-added service that Amazon's delivery service can provide that UPS and FedEx cannot (at least as easily). I don't think it's about losses from stolen packages--it's about negotiating lower rates with big players as they flesh out their own capacity to deliver those packages.
tracker1 9y ago
I get my packages sent to my grandmother because my place is way too open for me to trust deliveries... my grandmother's at least has a wall in front of the front door so packages just dropped off aren't visible from the street. I'd seriously consider this product.

fossuser 9y ago

The article touches on another reason, with house access they can organize services (house cleaning, dog walking etc.) that require access to the house.

jethro_tell 9y ago
Yes, The low liability, ups/usps friendly way to do this is to turn that 7 billion into a bunch of little yellow metal boxes with a key pad. I bet a lot of people who want the convenience would let them screw it to the front of the house or down to the deck
- reaperducer 9y ago
  They're halfway there. The yellow boxes are in most grocery stores in my area. And there are green ones at Whole Foods. Considering the USPS won't service individual house mailboxes in some parts of the country anymore (only communal mailbox clusters up to a mile away), what's the difference between getting a package from the USPS lockbox, or the Amazon lockbox which is located at a place I was going anyway?
test6554 9y ago
House access. A camera in your home. Automated delivery confirmation. Guaranteed correct address. No more delivery to wrong address because the door won't open at the wrong address.

moduspol 9y ago

It's because it's a value-added service that Amazon's delivery service can provide that UPS and FedEx cannot (at least as easily). I don't think it's about losses from stolen packages--it's about negotiating lower rates with big players as they flesh out their own capacity to deliver those packages.

tracker1 9y ago

I get my packages sent to my grandmother because my place is way too open for me to trust deliveries... my grandmother's at least has a wall in front of the front door so packages just dropped off aren't visible from the street. I'd seriously consider this product.