This fall, Amazon will be opening a package pickup location a block from the Student Center on the corner of Sheffield and Webster, where Lincoln Park residents can pick up their online orders.
The pickup location will be part of the company’s new Amazon Campus branch that offers students a reduced price on Prime accounts and allows for universities “to generate revenue from purchases made by your students,” according to the Amazon website.
Once the establishment opens, it will also allow for free returns and same-day and one-day deliveries on certain orders for Prime members. Orders from non-Prime members can also be picked up from the location.
Several other Amazon Lockers and on-campus pickup locations have emerged nationwide, including one on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago, making the DePaul location the second in the city.
Currently, all students living on campus have their mail shipped to a mailbox associated with their dorm and room number in the LPC Mail Center on the third floor of the Student Center. When a student receives a larger package, they get a yellow barcoded slip in their mailbox that they must take to a separate window where they must provide a signature in order to retrieve their package according to the DePaul website.
Freshman Dan Wright is starting his first year at DePaul living in Seton Hall. He regularly uses his Amazon account to buy music supplies for his bass guitar, and he thinks the new pickup location will be a convenient addition to the Lincoln Park area mostly because he “won’t have to go through the hassle of the mailing center in the SAC,” Wright said.
Although he is not a Prime member, junior Reuben Diaz uses Amazon to purchase items including used books and guitar strings. He currently lives on campus and plans to use the Mail Center in the Student Center this year, but he recognizes the benefits of the new Amazon pickup location.
“It seems like a great thing for the local community,” Diaz said. “There’ll be employment opportunities and more commerce in Lincoln Park.”
The addition of the package pickup locations in Chicago has brought about thousands of warehouse jobs in the area, according to an article in the Chicago Tribune.
While the facility may be convenient for those who frequent Lincoln Park, the location may not be of much use for students living off campus. Senior Kayla Smith lives off campus and would average a 15 minute commute to the pickup location, so she prefers to have her packages delivered directly to her apartment.
“The only people I could see using [the pickup location] are people who live in the dorms and don’t want to go to the Stu to get their package,” Smith said. “But at the same time, a pickup location would be the same deal for them, just picking up their packages in a different location.”
