Amazon Bows '2 Minutes or Less' Instant Pickup Service Near College Campuses

Amazon continued its expansion to brick-and-mortar locations Tuesday with the launch of Instant Pickup, a service tied to staffed pickup locations near UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley. The free service, available to Prime and Prime Student members with delivery times of “two minutes or less,” delivers to self-service lockers, said Amazon. The service is also to go online in Columbus, Ohio, College Park, Maryland, and Atlanta, said Amazon, but those locations weren’t yet operational Tuesday afternoon, according to the website. Products available via the new service are a “curated selection of daily essentials,” said Amazon, listing the Amazon Echo, Dot, Kindle Fire devices and Kindle e-readers as examples of electronics available through the service. Other items listed were phone chargers, food, cold drinks and personal care items. Prime members can browse the selection, place an order, add last-minute items to an online order and pick products up from a self-service locker, it said. Amazon operates 22 staffed pickup locations on or near college campuses across the country, it said. It didn’t respond to questions on expansion plans beyond the 22 locations.