Update: Amazon's giant locker is actually a marketing stunt with Nissan. Onlookers can take their pictures with the box and use #giantlocker hashtag when they post it on social media for a chance to win a Nissan Rogue and other prizes.
Right smack in the middle of San Francisco's busy, bustling Justin Herman Plaza is a giant, orange Amazon locker that has appeared seemingly from out of the blue. No one knows why it was put there either, but people have made a few guesses.
The words "Hello. My name is Giant, Amazon.com/locker" are emblazoned on one side of the brightly-colored locker. It is a rectangular metal box large enough to fit a car inside, with one of its sides made up almost entirely of what looks like a door. It also has an LCD screen, a keypad and a ticket scanner.
Citing a source privy to the matter, the Wall Street Journal reports that the enormous storage locker is part of a promotional event that Amazon is planning to hold at the location on Friday.
"Amazon is holding a promotional event there beginning Friday during which people will be filmed using the locker, according to a person familiar with the matter," WSJ reports. "Later, Amazon will send out codes to some customers which they can use to open the locker and claim prizes."
An Amazon worker who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that Amazon is planning to launch an event on Friday, but would not provide additional details. This seems to match CNET's report that a representative from San Francisco's parks and recreational department said that it has licensed the park for a Friday event, but did not say whether it was Amazon holding the event.
Both sources, however, mentioned Bad Company Films, a video production firm that makes music videos hired by Amazon. Bad Company also declined to comment.
Could Amazon be planning to roll out more of this giant, orange lockers in the near future? We don't know for sure, but the e-commerce company has always been looking for ways to provide faster and more reliable delivery options to its customers.
In 2011, Amazon partnered with 7-Eleven and other retail stores and launched its locker program to provide customers with a quasi-in-store pickup service similar to that offered by Wal-Mart and Best Buy. This allowed customers to collect their packages at a locker using a unique security code sent by Amazon instead of worrying about having crooks run off with their packages left by the delivery man in front of their doors.
Amazon has currently deployed eight pick-up lockers in downtown San Francisco, all of them accessible until late hours or 24 hours a day.
