An experience store, in other words, where customers get the chance to physically touch and try out hardware that they often buy online. The store, with a limited space of 1,550 square feet, will open on May 9 on the Meta campus in Burlingame, California, near the headquarters of Meta’s Reality Labs.
Meta deliberately opens the store in a rather quiet place and not in, for example, Manhattan in New York, writes technology news website ‘The Verge’. “This gives us the opportunity to experiment,” it sounds. The company can “learn lessons from it when determining its future retail strategy”.
You will be able to try out Meta’s Portal videophones and Quest virtual reality headsets, among other things. There is also a demo room where you can play games such as Beat Saber, GOLF+, Real VR Fishing or Supernatural with the Quest 2 VR glasses. Afterwards, visitors receive a 30-second ‘mixed reality clip’ in which they can show friends that they are playing a game.
You can also experiment in the store with Ray-Ban Stories, Facebook’s ‘smart’ glasses.
“When people experience the technology, they appreciate it more,” says Martin Gilliard of Meta Store. “If we’ve done our job well, after visiting our store, people will tell their friends, ‘You should go to the Meta Store.’”