New Amazon lockers bring convenience to campus

A set of Amazon lockers are the newest addition to the Morrison Commons and provide students and faculty with a flexible mailing option.

To use the lockers, users must be logged into their Amazon accounts. Once they are at checkout, they must enter Augustana’s address — 2001 S Summit Ave, Sioux Falls, SD 57197 — to select the lockers as the shipping location.

“Ours is only supposed to show up for somebody using that locker or that address, so there shouldn’t be people even across the street that that is showing up for,” Central Services supervisor Kami Gladis said. “It should only show up for the students here.”

Once Augustana’s address is entered, users should click on the “Pick up near this address” tab and select the “Amazon Hub Locker – Subhaan” option. This option will ship the user’s packages to the lockers.

According to Gladis, students should be aware that there are other Amazon lockers available in the Sioux Falls area.

“There’s some at Kum and Gos in the area, and those will show up as options,” Gladis said.

Once a student’s package is delivered, Amazon will email the user with an access code and instructions for opening the locker, which the user can enter on the locker’s keypad to collect their package.

According to Amazon, packages must weigh less than 10 pounds and be smaller than 16-by-12-by-14 inches to be eligible for locker pick-up. Amazon packages that do not meet those requirements will be available for pick-up in the Nelson Service Center. There is no additional charge for students or faculty members who utilize the lockers.

According to Gladis, users have three days to grab their packages, which they can do between 6 a.m. and midnight.

“You’ll get a refund back from Amazon if that happens, but within three days, they will take it back from the locker,” Gladis said.

Gladis said she hopes the extended hours of the lockers will provide students with more flexibility when picking up packages in comparison to the Nelson Service Center’s new, condensed hours.

“It’s just another way of us trying to give another option and make it a little bit more convenient for some of the students,” Gladis said.

In order to bring lockers to campus, Gladis said she filled out a free application on Amazon and provided possible locations for the lockers.

“We obviously wanted it in an area that was open as many hours as possible,” Gladis said.

Student accessibility and the location’s wiring capabilities were also considered when choosing the wall between the Commons and the Mortenson Center.

According to Justin Janssen, a mailroom worker and an Augustana sophomore, the lockers will make his job easier.

“A lot of the boxes that come in are from Amazon,” Janssen said. “Amazon is one of the main ones that gets ordered, so we’ll get a lot less of those packages, which means just less in general, having to sort and get everything in a timely manner.”

The lockers, which were installed in October, are currently live and ready for shipping. Gladis and Janssen said they are excited about the lockers and hope students and faculty share their feelings.

“We hope they work well for students,” Gladis said. “There’s always an option to add more too if it ends up catching on and students really like it.”