Holidays are approaching and holiday spirits can be felt by in the air...but not everyone does.
At Bailey's Crossing, a luxury rental apartment building, delivery people are overflowing with endless carts of packages from the Cyber Monday online shopping madness. They cannot, however, deliver the packages, regardless of its size, shape and form, to the tenants of the building or its front desk.
CNBC reports that with the increase of online shopping which comprise 10 per cent of all retails, landlords are balking.
Mark Alfieri, CEO of Monogram Residential Trust, which owns and manages Bailey's Crossing, told CNBC, "In our portfolio, which is 11,000 units in operation right now and 4,000 under development, this year we have an estimated 300,000 packages coming in. It's become a real challenge for the industry over the last several years as online shopping has increased."
The deliveries cannot be turned away either so the landlords and property managers have to become creative.
As a resolution, Monogram installed a high-tech locker system in the building's garage. Delivery people stand at an iPad screen, key in the delivery code, check the recipient's name and take a photo of the parcel before choosing a locker size. Once everything is in place, an SMS alert is sent to the building tenant who then pick up the package by entering the code that was sent via text and the assigned locker will pop open. Problem solved.
"We were overwhelmed with the package deliveries, so we decided to look at all the options that were available," said Jennifer Marsh, community director at Bailey's Crossing.
An average of 100 packages a week is delivered in a typical apartment but during the holiday season, the number could baloon, according to a 2014 survey by National Multifamily Housing Council. However, despite the growing problem only one in ten apartments were using package lockers.
The issue of productivity lost in this scenario is seen but those involved are doing what they can. Perhaps drones will be the answer? That is yet to known.
Have you experienced any delivery issues on your parcels yet?
