September 20, 2013
Both Staples and Radio Shack have removed Amazon lockers from stores, ending a nearly year-long partnership, due to increasing competition with the online retailer, a Bloomberg article reported.
The Amazon locker program allowed customers to ship items to various Staples and Radio Shack locations rather than have packages left on doorsteps or in apartment lobbies — a service particularly useful to urban dwellers.
The thought behind allowing the lockers to be housed in places like Staples or Radio Shack was that those who entered the store to pick up Amazon items would potentially make other purchases while within those stores. But following consecutive quarters of sales declines and realizing little ROI, the retailers may have decided the benefits were too one-sided.
Demos Parneros, president of North American stores and online for Staples, said in the article that the partnership "didn't meet the criteria we set up together," but declined to comment further.
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