As is so often the case, this is already a solved problem in Japan. When a package arrives, I'm alerted to its presence when I RFID my key to open the lobby door. Then I RFID my key again on the package locker and the locker with my stuff pops open.
The issue with lockers filling up too quickly or packages sitting in them too long is handled by the shipping company, which has sufficiently good customer service to contact me about re-delivering items that aren't reaching me. Also, my neighbors would be mortified if their deliveries ever inconvenienced someone else in the building, so it's somewhat self-policing in that sense.
The amount of over-engineering that goes into overcoming the shortcomings of customer service and lack of basic etiquette in America is amusing and sad. Amazon seems to be an emerging leader in finding solutions for social breakdowns that could be easily solved if people cared more about doing a good job or about extending basic courtesies to their fellow citizens.
And even if you don't live in some fancy apartment building with RFID locks you can just get a box that you chain to your front door and the delivery services will respect that and put your packages in there, use your seal for a signature, and then lock it after they're done https://direct.sanwa.co.jp/ItemPage/300-DLBOX001
Yeah you can get away with a lot less physical security in Japan.
Around where I live bikes are just locked with ring locks that go through the spokes of the back wheel (in other countries that would get your bike lifted into the back of a truck in days).
This also makes retail a lot nicer since you don't get those crazy un-openable blister packs you see in the west. Most packaging is just held together with a single piece of tape for easy opening. Amazon's "frustration-free packaging" is actually more difficult to open than most of the retail electronics packaging you have here.
And yet where I live I get packages left at my door for days, noone is touching them, there are no bullet proof vending machines and people generally are well behaved and courteous.
This just to remind you that the US is huge, consists of 50 states and in most cases the states are very different from each others.
I'm not even an american and I'm offended about the generalization.
The trick is that Japan has managed to have this security broadly across their whole society - from sleepy villages to inner cities to depopulating poverty-stricken towns that lost their industry.
> The issue with lockers filling up too quickly or packages sitting in them too long is handled by the shipping company, which has sufficiently good customer service
This is the crux of the issue. US companies don't want to have good customer service. They want to charge you for every single piece of customer service above the absolute minimum.
The issue with lockers filling up too quickly or packages sitting in them too long is handled by the shipping company, which has sufficiently good customer service to contact me about re-delivering items that aren't reaching me. Also, my neighbors would be mortified if their deliveries ever inconvenienced someone else in the building, so it's somewhat self-policing in that sense.
The amount of over-engineering that goes into overcoming the shortcomings of customer service and lack of basic etiquette in America is amusing and sad. Amazon seems to be an emerging leader in finding solutions for social breakdowns that could be easily solved if people cared more about doing a good job or about extending basic courtesies to their fellow citizens.