Inside Amazon: secretive tech company opens its Seattle HQ to the public

The Guardian takes the first-ever public tour of Amazon's nerve centre in Seattle and finds a sparkling PR effort - and free bananas

A group of twentysomethings are laughing around a rooftop fire-pit overlooking sailboats on Seattle's Lake Union. A team of software engineers huddles round a laptop while sipping lattes in wingback chairs. And a tiny Boston terrier is running around squeaking a squeezy toy.

Amazon's first-ever public tour of its Seattle headquarters offers a very different view from the toxic workplace depicted in last year's New York Times exposi(C). There's not one person crying at their desk, and not a single burned-out "rank and yank" reject being tossed from the building by burly security guards.