Amazon hits The Beach

Published September 20, 2016

The all-so-familiar smile, that happy icon on the sides of cardboard boxes worldwide, can now be found on the Cal State Long Beach campus.

Amazon @ The Beach officially opened Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, demonstrations and giveaways to those who visited the orange neon-lit store located near the university bookstore. The store will be open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the weekends.

“This is great because I have less time to go shopping,” said Abhiskek M.B., an aerospace graduate student said. “It makes it easier because now I can come pick up my packages … It’s easier than going to the mall.”

Don Penrod, CEO of the 49er Shops, said Amazon @ The Beach will be a “great convenience” for faculty, staff and students. It also will be beneficial to the 49er Shops as it receives a “small percentage” of all purchases made through the co-branded Amazon @ The Beach site.

“So if they have a Prime Account, we would ask them to link it to our co-branded site and all the purchases they make, we will get a small override on that,” Penrod said.

That includes online shoppers who live within selected zip codes around the campus.

Cal State Long Beach is the first university in Southern California and the first Cal State school to have an Amazon store on campus, meaning students now have the convenience of ordering and picking up their books, Beach apparel, ramen and any of the thousands of items offered on campus.

The e-commerce giant has several locations on college campuses around the country, opening its first store at Purdue University.

“This means we are doing things a lot differently,” Penrod said. “We used to be a stand-alone business, but now we are into a whole of partnerships. Amazon is now one of those.”

Jon Alexander, general manager of Amazon Campus, said CSULB was chosen because of its large enrollment, which exceeds 37,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

“It’s been a popular venture with students,” Alexander said.

 Amazon Prime and Prime Student members will have access to Free Same-Day Pickup at the location for orders placed by noon and Free One-Day Pickup for orders placed by 10 p.m.

To start a 30-day Amazon Prime free trial, visit www.amazon.com/joinprime. More information is available at csulb.amazon.com