Amazon will start offering regular public tours of its Seattle headquarters, pulling back the curtain on its internal operations in a new effort to highlight the company’s connection to the city it’s reshaping.
Just leave the binoculars at home, OK?
That’s one of the items prohibited on the free tours, according to the confirmation message sent to people who register — just in case you had any ideas about stealing Amazon secrets from employee computer screens across the room. However, photos are allowed, so you can bring your camera.
Amazon already offers tours of six fulfillment centers across the country, but the headquarters tours are a new step for a tech giant that places a premium on security and secrecy.
The company has been criticized in the past for lacking a strong connection to its hometown, but the tour is clearly meant, at least in part, to counteract that notion and demonstrate the company’s progress on that front. The Amazon headquarters tour site notes that the company is the largest private employer in the city of Seattle, and one of its largest taxpayers.
Previously: The United States of Amazon: Interactive map shows tech giant’s growing national footprint
“Several years ago, we made a conscious choice to invest in downtown Seattle, even though it would’ve been cheaper for us to move our headquarters to the suburbs,” the site reads. “We chose to commit to Seattle because we believed it was the right choice for our employees and for the city.”
The site also highlights the company’s community engagement through a variety of non-profits, such as making one of its unused buildings available for use as a homeless shelter for families.
The tours start at Amazon’s South Lake Union headquarters. However, the tour website also highlights aspects of the company’s new campus in the Denny Triangle neighborhood, with a picture of the rooftop dog park at its new Doppler building, and a reference to its initiative to heat the new campus with recycled waste heat from the nearby Westin Building data center.
“Customers will get a behind the scenes look inside some of our buildings, hear stories that shaped Amazon’s quirky history, learn about community programs like our partnership with Mary’s Place, interact with some of the latest innovations in robot technology, enjoy a free banana from our Community Banana Stand, and, most importantly, see Amazonians at work doing what they do best – obsessing over customers,” says John Schoettler, director of global real estate and facilities, in a post announcing the new tours.
He adds, “We are proud to call Seattle home, and cannot wait for customers, curious Seattlites, school groups and so many more to visit.”
The free tours, which require pre-registration, will be available every Wednesday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and they will typically last about an hour, the company says. “We will do our best to answer your group’s questions,” reads the confirmation message, “but please understand that we may not be able to go into specifics on certain topics.”
