Package lockers are popping up everywhere these days. Companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Rent the Runway are lining grocery stores, apartment buildings, and co-working spaces with them, offering an easy way to pick up and drop off online orders. And as e-commerce continues to grow, these structures are only going to become more ubiquitous. But unlike iconic metal mailboxes, which were carefully designed by the U.S. Post Office over several decades, little thought has gone into the design of these lockers and how they fit into our cities.
The payments platform Klarna wants to change that. The Swedish company–which partners with 200,000 merchants across 17 countries including H&M, Ikea, Nike, and Asos—has been thinking up new solutions that make shopping more convenient and enjoyable for its customers. At its Future Shopping Lab, Klarna’s designers have developed a new concept called the Modular Mailbox. It’s a place for customers to pick up packages and groceries purchased using Klarna, while doubling as a community hub. It’s also designed to add color and beauty to the urban landscape.
Klarna’s version of the locker would be a large, colorful structure, made up of several compartments. One would be for picking up packages and groceries purchased using Klarna. But the idea would be to incorporate other useful modules. A sharing box, for instance, could be a place for neighbors to share books, clothes, or food with one another. “There could be an app for your neighborhood where you could request a screwdriver, and a neighbor would drop one off in the box,” says Fahlander, who spearheaded this project. “This would be part of the sharing economy, and reduce the need to buy as much.”
Sharing boxes have grown in popularity during the COVID-19 crisis, when many people are struggling. Take, for instance, the Little Free Library, which sets up boxes for people to donate books, for anybody else to take. With so many schools and traditional libraries shuttered, more than 1,000 free libraries have popped up since the pandemic began (some have even become food pantries). In the Bay Area, a wholesale grocery startup called Cheetah has set up community fridges that allow people to share food with others in their community.
Klarna believes that some modules could also be devoted to helping people live more sustainably. A communal 3D printer, for instance, could allows residents to print items they might need to repair something in their home, like a missing screw or a doorknob. A recycling module could allow people to drop off hard-to-recycle materials, like fabric or particular forms of plastic, which could be immediately atomized and compressed. After a delivery truck makes a drop-off, it could collect some of this recyclable material and bring it to the right facility, creating a more energy efficient system.
For right now the Modular Mailbox concept is largely theoretical and there would be many challenges along the path to turning it into a reality. One obstacle would be getting the right permits and licenses to set up these structures. Fahlander says the most straightforward solution would be to partner with private real estate companies to set them up in apartment buildings or shopping centers. Setting them up on public streets would be more complex, but if the mailboxes are seen as a public good, cities may be interested in introducing them to neighborhoods. Klarna also says it could work with third party companies to develop branded modules. It might work with a local farm to create a locker for fresh produce or a fashion boutique to display items from the latest collection.
But Fahlander says the most important thing is to focus on meeting the needs of each particular community. “It’s a flexible system,” says Fahlander. “It is designed to change depending on the needs of a neighborhood, but it can also evolve over time, as our behavior and needs change. You might come back to the mailbox in a few weeks and find that an entirely new module has sprung up.”