Amazon Has Literally Gone BananasThe e-tailer is getting fruity with a potassium-packed publicity stunt.

ByKim Lachance Shandrow

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Amazon is handing out bananas for free in Seattle. Yes, you read that right.

Two days ago, the e-tailer set up a banana giveaway stand manned by Amazon employees outside the company's Emerald City headquarters. Exactly why is a riddle we're still trying to unpeel, though it reeks of a pretty peculiar publicity stunt.

Bright orange jacket-wearing "banistas" seated inside Amazon's canopied "Community Banana Stand" dole out the starchy fruit -- and random banana facts -- to anyone who meanders by, even if they don't work for Amazon, according toGeekwire.

Related:Amazon Prime Day Highlighted by Disappointment

站附近的一个黑板,每天从8点开放. to 3:30 p.m. local time, reads:

A banana a day keeps the doctor away. Take one. Not just for Amazonians, but for anyone in the community. Enjoy!

Well, ok then. So what if there'sno such thing as a free lunchat Amazon? At least it treats its Amazonians (and pedestrians in the immediate vicinity of its HQ) to fresh, healthy and cheap fruit on the fly.

Related:Publicity Stunt Du Jour: Spend the Night at IKEA Thanks to Airbnb

Amazon hopes the pop-up is here to stay. "Bananas are a great healthy snack with built-in compostable packaging," an Amazon spokesperson toldGeekwirein a statement. "We hope the community likes it, and if they do, we'll keep doing it."

As you might recall, the company's reputation took a trouncing on the heels of a damningNew York Timesarticle earlier this year. Published on Aug. 15, the deep dive depicted Amazon as a ruthless workplace, as our ownNina Zipkinput it, "where frequent criticism, tears in cubicles and a constant refrain of "Amazon is where overachievers go to feel bad about themselves,' are part of the employee experience."

If this is just a publicity stunt to show the public Amazon isn't so hard on its workers after all, it seems a bit bananas to us.

Related:Amazon's Jeff Bezos Opens Line of Communication with Employees In Wake of Damning Article About Company Culture

Wavy Line
Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist atLos Angeles CityBeat,a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to theLos Angeles Times. She has also written forGovernment Technologymagazine,LA Yogamagazine, theLowell Sunnewspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at@Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebookhere.

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