Time is running out on an Amazon Prime deal that could help protect your holiday deliveries and save you some cash.
Until December 31, Amazon is offering customers $10 if they opt out of home delivery and pick up Amazon deliveries at a controlled pickup point near them. These can be Amazon Hub counters or Amazon Hub lockers near where you live, work, and shop. It is a good protection against porch hackers and their aim to steal packages from your porch when you are not at home.
Using a pickup location (opens in a new tab) is also a safe and convenient way to ship vacation packages to family and friends by having the package shipped to an Amazon Hub location near them. It won’t come in gift wrap, but it will still be appreciated. And you’ll avoid having your gift purchase shipped to you and then re-shipped to the actual recipient.
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Here’s how it works:
- After shopping, click on your cart and proceed to checkout.
- Where it says “delivery address” you should see your home address. Click the box that says “edit.”
- Under “other addresses”, click on “find a place near you”.
- Choose a convenient Amazon Hub Locker or Amazon Hub Counter location for your Amazon pickup. Add it to your address book and use that location.
- Use code 10TRIPICKUP at checkout.
If you live in a small town, like me, you might get the answer “no Amazon Hub pickup locations near this address yet. Please search for a different address. I also get this response on the Find an Amazon Hub Locker (opens in a new tab) page.
I chose another area, around Ewing, NJ Twenty pickup locations filled the list. Hub Lockers were found at convenience stores and pharmacies in the Ewing area, including 7/11, Food Mart, Rite Aid, Save A Lot, Dollar Tree, QuickChek, Family Dollar and Uni-Mart.
Hub lockers are self-service kiosks. You can also find them at Whole Foods supermarkets, malls, malls and other locations, some available 24 hours a day. When your package is delivered to the locker, Amazon will send you a unique six-digit code to unlock the locker and transport your package.
There were also Amazon Hub counters, one in a AAA store, in my search for a pickup location in Ewing. Amazon Hub counters offer staff assistance when picking up your packages, and may even have packing materials and services available for returns.
Making package pickup safer and easier for customers by opening more pickup points is another benefit of Amazon Prime. Counting benefits has become a must for those given the fate of their Amazon Prime subscriptionp, which became 17% more expensive in 2022. Some advantages, including Amazon Treasure Truck and Amazon Reader, have been removed (or will be removed soon). But a bonus came in 2022 when Amazon opened its archive vaults to Amazon Prime subscribers.