
Amazon, the time has come to give you a key - jordn
http://peternixey.com/post/74933869565/amazon-the-time-has-come-to-give-you-a-key
======
petenixey
Just to clarify (because the comments here are suggesting that a lockbox does
what I'm asking for) - a lockbox does not address the issue for me. Lockboxes
are never all that local and they don't carry heavy things home for you.

I literally want Amazon to go directly into my home and leave the goods in
there. I want to order groceries on my phone and find them in my flat. Frozen
items don't matter - I won't order them, it doesn't matter if they sit for a
while. I want to leave a return package in my hallway and have it taken back
by someone who collects it.

I know that this sounds entitled but I also know that Amazon's already got the
chops to support this and that if they did I would buy a lot more from them
(like maybe £50/week more from them). Combined with Prime it would mean I
would never want to order from any other merchant either.

~~~
angersock
Physical security means nothing to you, does it?

~~~
petenixey
Leaving the house compromises my physical security.

Your comment is easy and throwaway and I think you probably already what I'm
about to say but life is a balancing act between security and utility.

The web and history are littered with examples of things that a "hacker
mentality" would have baulked at _in theory_. AirBnB, Facebook, Twitter,
Foursquare, Uber. All of these things would have triggered the line
"Identity/Physical security means nothing to you does it?". And yet, for many
people, they are more than worth the risk involved.

We live in an age where it's accepted that perfect strangers should rent our
house or drive our car and yet it seems odd that we should allow a liveried
delivery man access to our house. How bizarre.

~~~
waterlesscloud
"We live in an age where it's accepted that perfect strangers should rent our
house or drive our car"

Well, no. We live in an age where a vanishingly small percentage of the
population does these things.

~~~
garethadams
Based on Airbnb's trends[1], the only way the number can be "vanishingly
small" is if an even greater number of people are deliberately stopping these
behaviours. Where are you seeing that happening?

[1]: [https://www.airbnb.co.uk/annual](https://www.airbnb.co.uk/annual)

~~~
pjc50
That page says 300,000 listings, versus ~300m people in the US, makes 0.1%.
That's not a large percentage; you could find a greater number of people who
believe the moon landings are faked.

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crazygringo
I never thought about it before, but this would be _awesome_ , especially
considering:

1) Security webcams are so cheap these days, it would be trivial to catch any
delivery person who has "other ideas". And if delivery services started doing
this, they'd probably have their delivery people wear cameras as well, to
protect again false claims from residents with "other ideas"

2) Keycode entry locks allow delivery people to have a code, not to carry
around keys, each delivery service could have their own keycode, and if you
wanted, you could even create single-use codes tied to specific deliveries
(much like single-use credit card numbers), well assuming there are locks that
support that

3) As an even greater security measure, you can prevent the codes from working
while you're at home, asleep, etc., so no threat to your personal physical
security

I mean, I'd go even farther than the OP and be asking FreshDirect to put the
ice cream directly in my freezer.

But then again, literally the most valuable single object I own is my laptop.
People with valuable jewelry collections might not be so enthusiastic.

~~~
gamegoblin
As someone else with not much in the ways of physical possessions, I fully
agree. I remember once I left my place for the weekend and forgot to lock the
door, but I had my laptop on me so no worries. And it's not even the laptop,
that's just a cheap $450 code editing box. Now that I type this I remember I
have all of my data backed up across three different servers and I realize
there are really no physical possessions I couldn't stand to lose. Come on in
Amazon!

------
johnmurch
I always wondered by UPS/FedEx don't have keys to the outside or every apt
building have "drop boxes" \- large empty boxes that UPS/FedEx could put in a
package, lock it with the key, then drop the key in the mailbox of the person
who needs it.

Thinking a bit more - I wonder if lockitron could solve this allowing
"carriers" to enter, drop off package or put groceries away (for the most
part) - cold items in freezer, perishable items in fridge, etc.

Super interest - also how a retail spans years with various
connections/products and integrates into your life.

~~~
aaronem
Canada Post's community mailboxes have oversized slots for packages, which
work on exactly the model you propose. I gather it works reasonably well.

On the other hand, I have absolutely no desire to have random delivery staff
wandering in and out of my apartment. If that means I have to shop for my own
groceries, rather than having them delivered, then that's what I'll do. This
also has the benefit that I can pick my own produce, rather than relying on
someone who works for Peapod or similar, who likely gets paid rather poor
wages, and who, to pick one particularly memorable example, has no particular
interest in seeing to it that I get fresh, firm, ripe bell peppers instead of
sallow, sunken, half-gone-over ones.

~~~
canistr
But the oversized slots don't actually fit all oversized items.

And depending on how Amazon, Dell, etc. packages the boxes, it can be bigger
than it needs to be or multiple items are put in one box requiring you to go
pick up at the nearest post office anyway.

~~~
aaronem
"Oversized" only by comparison with the regular mail slots in the postbox, not
by comparison with actual packages. It wouldn't be a bad idea to add a few
much larger slots, perhaps in a second housing alongside or below the existing
one.

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brownie3003
This is something I've been thinking about for a while. I agree that allowing
delivery drivers/drones into the house is the best solution, and with Amazon I
would have no worries about doing this as they would make sure drivers
behaved. However for other companies or random delivery companies contracted
out... not so sure.

I've been developing an alternative solution. A secure box that you can put
outside your home which delivery drivers can request access to. The box's lock
is similar to lockitron or bike locks that can be controlled with a phone.
This would require the delivery driver to have an app installed to communicate
with the box and the owner, which is not always going to be the case. I'm
working on allowing the driver to request access by identifying themselves to
the owner via voice or video (VOIP/camera) even if they don't have a
smartphone/don't have the app.

I have uploaded a video of super early prototype here:
[https://vimeo.com/85355890](https://vimeo.com/85355890)

Anyway thought I'd chip in as I'm working on it. I've set up a landing page a
[http://www.lockboxx.co](http://www.lockboxx.co) if anyone wants to find out
more.

~~~
zyxley
Why not put a keypad on the box, then generate limited-use codes that delivery
people can use?

Then it can be used with local delivery services and the like with no extra
work needed past a "put it in the lockbox at the front, code is 393536"
instruction.

~~~
brownie3003
Also sounds like a good solution. I will look into this instead of
VOIP/camera.

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sentenza
I wonder why he writes that the lockerbox didn't work. Deutsche Post
introduced them here in Germany a few years ago and they are used to capacity.

I've had this "I'm never gonna do it but it sure would be nice" idea about a
refrigerated postbox rollout for years:

First you put a refrigerated lockerbox in the most densely populated
neighborhoods to get the unbroken refrigeration chain infrastructure flowing.
Then, over the years, homeowners could install a two-sided refrigerator in the
external wall of their house. That refrigerator would have electronic locks on
both sides. The locks on the outside can only be opened by the various
deliverymen and the lock on the inside can be opened only by you.

The remaining risk would be a deliveryman cleaning out your fridge, but since
everything is logged these days, we'll at least catch the guy.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Why would you need any sort of "lock" on the inside at all, aside from a
physical latch that can't be opened from inside the refrigerator?

If someone's already in my house, the contents of my delivery-fridge are the
least of my concerns.

~~~
jowiar
Presumably the idea being such the delivery fridge key grants access to the
fridge and not the house?

~~~
sentenza
Yes, of course. I failed to specify this in my other reply to the parent.

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xlevus
While not possible for everybody, a dropbox is what you want:

[http://www.amazon.com/Architectural-Mailboxes-6900RZ-
Elephan...](http://www.amazon.com/Architectural-Mailboxes-6900RZ-Elephantrunk-
Parcel/dp/B00AESQ1CO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391015848&sr=8-1&keywords=parcel+drop)

Effectively, your own deposit-only lockbox that any mail service can use.

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tolmasky
Wow this is the most unusable page I've ever loaded in mobile. Can't read a
single thing.

~~~
lukasm
Works fine for me. Do you request desktop version?

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virtualsue
I've started picking up amazon deliveries at local shops (Collect+). This is
working out rather well - no need for special lockbox or a supersize ring o'
keys.

~~~
danpalmer
I've _just_ taken a return back to my nearest convenient Collect+ location.
It's a 30 minute walk away, despite me living on a busy shopping road with
lots of suitable places.

They really need to expand this a considerable amount. I'm not against the
idea of giving keys to Amazon, if done in the right way. More ideally, I'd
have an electronic lock that could grant them access for particular orders.

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Pxtl
Every house in my neighborhood has a disused milk-delivery-box on the driveway
side that could easily store smallish parcels. It would be so simple to
convert those into locking delivery boxes.

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sprite
Move into a high end condo. Front desk will sign for packages for you and the
doorman can put them in your unit.

