Futuristic mail - Paczkomaty Post

I bought something online a couple weeks ago and was quite excited when the shipping options allowed for me to choose "paczkomaty post" for delivery. I *just* found about this wanted to try it out. Luckily, they have a pick up center close to where we are building so it was easily combined with a trip to check on the progress out there. Krakow has over 50 locations.

You choose your location. Ours is in Wielicka at Armado Pizzeria (I think they were going for an Italian sound, I like to imagine rolling the r when I say it since i can't actually roll my r's). We've eaten here before so I knew where it was. Pizza is not so great, but luckily they do have two gambling machines inside to class the place up.


You find your location, and retrieve the code from your phone. (If you don't have texting on your phone then that means you have a phone older than the one we have and you and I should meet so that I can feel better about our technology situation)



Then you punch in your phone number and code on the screen.


After punching in all the appropriate numbers on the touch screen (fancy, fancy - again, reflect on the era of technology I'm used to dwelling in), you take a step back (this was intuitive, since there is no other way to open the doors and I can't see the screen to follow other instructions) and one of the doors, appropriate to the size of your package, pops open somewhere on the big yellow structure... and then a creepy voice with a British accent speaks very loudly and tells you to remove your package and shut the door.


The Koniec.


Pros and Cons...

It does't really make sense to travel outside your home to pick up a package if you don't have to, that's kind of the whole point of buying things online. BUT, it was cheaper this way (by 2zl.,) and I wanted to try it out. This is definitely going to be something I try next time I ship something within Poland. The first and only time I did that the item never made it and it was a pair of handknit fingerless gloves and I am still a bit peeved. (I'm very slowly knitting new ones to replace them but gosh darn it, how do you lose a package? Where does it go? It's just sitting somewhere either thrown away or being used... I'm gonna see someone wearing them someday aren't I?...) Clearly if more technology is involved no packages will be lost. Sigh. Martin will want me to add that he has sent many packages and documents within Poland and never had anything get lost AND I have sent several things to the States and they have always made it.

The biggest con, and it is a big one... you can't see the screen, at all. If you were a really tall man you might not have any problems but the height of the screen plus the sunlight made it impossible to read instructions or even see the touch pad unless I stood on my tiptoes and shielded the screen. They need to add a piece of cloth to hang over the screen to shield the sun like they do at the Redbox's in America. And perhaps add a little step up on the ground for shorter people. It would be almost impossible for someone shorter than 5 ft. 4in. to use it.

Why am I boring you with all these details? No reason other than I thought this was really cool.