7-Eleven, Inc. is adding thousands of lockers at its North American stores, so customers can pick up packages from FedEx and UPS. Any retailers can now arrange to have their customers pickup packages at 7-Eleven stores, rather than having their packages left at their front door. Surging online sales are spurring popularity of 7-Eleven lockers. Although a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Seven & I Holdings Company, 7-Eleven expects more and more retailers to opt to have lockers in their stores. Amazon already has lockers at 186 7-Eleven stores, which benefits by having more and more customers coming into their stores to pickup packages. Most 7-Eleven stores are open 24-7. Consumers in Europe and Asia actually are more accustomed to locker-based package pickup than North Americans, so 7-Eleven may roll their new business onto those continents.

Based on: Loretta Chao, “7-Eleven Wants to be Your Post Office,” Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2015, p. B1.