Amazon hired banistas and bananagers to give away 1.7 million free bananas

Jeff Bezos has taken some business inspiration from George Bluth Sr. on Arrested Development. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Amazon has installed two banana stands at its Seattle headquarters. In two years, the stands have given more than 1.7 million free bananas to staffers — altering local banana sales in the process.

The Journal reports that Amazon opened the first Community Banana Stand in late 2015 as a public service. Bananas were seen a healthy, fully compostable, and affordable snack for employees and locals.

To support this operation, the stands have so-called “banistas” and “bananagers” (really!) to keep up the stock of the slightly radioactive fruit and keep track of how many are given away. So many bananas are dispensed on a regular basis that the stands have forced businesses like the nearby vegetarian cafe Anar to rethink how it uses bananas in its food and drinks. When one of the biggest tech companies in the world is giving them away for free, selling bananas is a nonstarter.

If anything justifies the unasked-for return of Arrested Development for a fifth season, this might be it.

The article was published on : theverge