Amazon is the world’s largest retailer, and part of why that is comes from businesses pitching their ideas to them. One of the nation’s largest apartment rental companies, based in Phoenix, did just that two years ago with a concept called Amazon Lockers, which is now spreading nationwide.
Valley-based Mark Taylor was the first in the country to use the lockers on a rental site. Now it houses lockers in 37 of its Arizona complexes. Company vice president Chris Brozina says it made good business sense to try to land Amazon as a partner, as apartment rental demand continues to grow in the Valley and more and more people are shopping online for everyday goods.
“We have 30,000 residents that live with us in the greater Phoenix area, so we, honestly, two years ago, reached out and just started calling every Seattle phone number we could find trying to convince them of the opportunity. It took about two weeks to find somebody on the other end. And then it took about three months to convince him to convince his boss to convince his boss and so on, that there is an opportunity here that they should address,” Brozina said.
Amazon already has added lockers throughout the U.S., including an announcement that it is rolling them out at its newly acquired Whole Foods stores.
