Yesterday Bloomberg got a hold of a filing that shows our favorite company may be planning to open a stand-alone retail store at its European headquarters in Dublin. According to the local planning application, the store would be open to the public and sell unspecified “Google Merchandise.” Up until now, Google has only had their one merchandise store in California, but that one is closed to the public. Other than that, Google’s only other attempt at selling products in-store has been their Chromebook store inside of a London branch of Currys and PC World.

At this point, why not? Having a retail store is a great platform for better brand recognition and has worked quite well for Apple. Considering the latest news of Google developing their own branded home-entertainment system, having a retail store in which to sell it from would make some sense.

Could this be the start of a new era for Google or simply another Google employee perk? Who knows, but you’ll notice the filing also calls for a staff swimming pool and gymnasium — jealous? Only time will tell and Google has already gone on record as saying:

“While we do have the option to open retail space, we are examining all potential uses,” “No final decision has been taken.”

I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for the day I can walk into a Google store and be greeting by an employee saying: “Welcome to the Google store, can we help you search for something?”

• SourceBloomberg