Amazon makes the Ivy League

After years of hard work and success, Amazon.com has finally gained admittance to an elite Ivy League campus.



Amazon plans to open Amazon@Penn, a new staffed package pickup point to be opened on the University of Pennsylvania campus. The first such facility at an Ivy League university, Amazon@Penn will offer a location for Penn students to pick up and return their Amazon orders.



Opening in spring 2016, this 3,558-sq.-ft.space will be located at an on-campus dining hall and be accessible to students who live on or off-campus. It will offer mobile-enabled, self-service package pickup. In addition, Amazon@Penn will be the first Amazon pickup location to feature communal work spaces with interactive media pods where students can connect their laptops and mobile devices to TV monitors.



Furthermore, Amazon Student and Prime members will receive free same-day pickup for orders placed by noon and free one-day pickup for orders placed by 10 p m.



Amazon@Penn may be Amazon’s first staffed pickup foray at an elite Ivy League university, but is not the retailer’s first invite to the college party. Since February 2015, Amazon has launched similar programs at Purdue University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of California Santa Barbara, and University of Cincinnati.



Amazon also has confirmed agreements to open two more locations in 2016 with the University of California, Davis and the University of California, Berkeley.



Although this program helps establish Amazon with educated consumers as they prepare to start their careers, is hard to escape thinking part of Amazon’s motivation is to take direct aim at Barnes & Noble Education, which operates bookstores on many college campuses. A widespread dedicated, staffed Amazon pickup program at campuses across the U.S. could inflict a lot of damage on Barnes & Noble Education, which has displayed rocky financial performance since spinning off from parent company Barnes & Noble in August 2015.



“We're thrilled to bring a new experience to Penn that makes it more convenient for students to get everything they need for university life,” said Ripley MacDonald, director of Amazon Student Programs. “We look forward to bringing this experience to even more college communities soon.”