Anyone with their eyes open in the Student Life Centre has probably seen the large green box with the white X on it. The BufferBox, for those unfamiliar with it, was designed with the intention of making parcel deliveries a far more smooth process, especially for those who have felt the frustration of attempting to properly time a home delivery. Instead of waiting at home during a four-hour window for a five-second delivery, BufferBox provided publicly accessible delivery locations in Waterloo, Toronto and (most recently) San Francisco that served as the title ‘buffer’ zone. When a user’s package arrives at their designated BufferBox, they are sent an email notification with a code to unlock the box and retrieve their purchase.
The start-up was first formed by Waterloo grads Aditiya Bali, Mike McCauley, and Jay Shah back in 2010 and developed over the years into a larger, more formidable company. Originally only serving Waterloo, it expanded into Toronto in late 2011, picking up contracts and agreements with other companies to expand its services into GO Stations and 7-Elevens.
In November of 2011, BufferBox was acquired by Google in what appeared to be a simple business venture into investing in a smart and successful start-up. After the purchase, BufferBox announced its intentions to expand its market into more cities south of the border, and began offering its services in San Francisco. It seemed like a promising sign, as Google was clearly interested in expanding the company far beyond its original scope.
However, just two weeks ago the company announced its decision to begin ‘winding down’ its services to make way for future shopping services offered by Google, including Google Shopping Express, which is currently only offering deliveries around the San Francisco Bay area. With this announcement, BufferBox ceased the ability for new customers to sign-up on their website, and provided the final dates that the BufferBoxes would operate. After March 31, packages will no longer be accepted into their warehouses; any items shipped to them after this date will be returned to the sender. April 12 will be the last day in which packages can be picked up from the BufferBox locations. This holds true for all BufferBox locations in both Canada and the US, and means that any online partners with BufferBox will also cease to offer the service.
The news of the impending closing of BufferBox came with a message of optimism from the BufferBox team, claiming that the action will hopefully allow them to focus on integrating the data and lessons they gained during BufferBox’s lifetime into bettering the delivery service of the future. It is clear that their ideas and efforts are committed to the cause of easier, more efficient shopping. Still, it cannot be an easy task for any entrepreneur to let go of the start-up that they formed, perfected, and watched grow into a company successful enough to catch Google’s attention. We can only wish the team great success in their future projects, and hope to hear more from the Waterloo grads in the future.
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