Amazon gives away 1.7M bananas around its headquarters in Seattle

Amazon’s free fruit stands are making locals and employees go bananas, but businesses in the area are split.

Amazon first opened the Community Banana Stand in 2015, and there are now two on it’s sprawling corporate campus. Since then, it’s given away an estimated 1.7 million bananas from two separate stands to employees and non-employees alike. The employees running the stands are called “banistas” and “bananagers,” because Amazon are malevolent gods and won’t let a terrible pun go unexpressed, apparently.

As the Wall Street Journal notes, the stands mean trouble for local businesses hoping to sell anything banana-related — why would anyone buy them when Amazon is giving them away? That said, Amazon chose the snacks due to how ec0-friendly they are. Bananas come with their own biodegradable packaging, after all.

Anyone on a wheeled vehicle had better be careful, though. I’m willing to bet the ground nearby that stand looks like a Mario Kart fever dream these days.