Amazon launches Instant Pickup service at five college campuses

SEATTLE – Amazon.com has launched yet another brick-and-mortar experiment, this time geared to college students in a hurry on their campuses.

The service, dubbed Instant Pickup, offers a limited stock of basic items that range from snacks to phone chargers and Amazon devices.

Using the service, shoppers – members of Prime, or the discounted Prime Student loyalty program – order online. Then their order can be picked up almost immediately – in 2 minutes, Amazon said – at five staffed locations that Amazon has set up around college campuses at the University of California, Los Angeles, Georgia Tech in Atlanta, University of California at Berkeley, Ohio State University in Columbus, and the University of Maryland in College Park.

Amazon, which operates pickup locations on or near 22 college campuses in the U.S., says it will bring the service to other places soon.

The move underscores how Amazon is tinkering with various ways of delivering goods to shoppers.

Its biggest challenge is to beat brick-and-mortar retailers in the game of instant gratification.

To that end, the company is making major investments in logistics, including a fleet of air freighters, and also experimenting with different networks of physical stores, ranging from bookstores to grocery pickup locations. Amazon also agreed to acquire Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion, a move that, if approved, will give it a brick-and-mortar empire spanning hundreds of locations.