Meta recently announced the opening of its first physical store: the Meta Store. It will allow consumers and the curious to discover the group’s products and try them directly on site. Opening next May 9 in Burlingame, CA.
The first Meta Store opens its doors
Since 2020, the group had been planning to open a store dedicated to products from the Reality Labs division, one of Meta’s subsidiaries specializing in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). This will be done soon. The point of sale is also located near the head office of this division, . In 1,550 m², customers will be able to try Ray-Ban Stories connected glasses, the Meta Quest 2 VR headset and the Meta Portal connected screens from Facebook’s parent company.
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” Having a store here in Burlingame gives us more opportunities to experiment and include customer experience at the heart of our development. “, explains Martin Gilliard, director of the point of sale.
A taste of the metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg and his teams thought of the place as a temple dedicated to VR and AR. The ambition is to promote equipment that will ultimately provide access to the long-awaited metaverse.
” The Meta Store will help people understand how our products will enable access to the metaverse in the future. We don’t sell the Metaverse in our store but we hope people will come in and out knowing a bit more about how our devices will allow them to connect to it », detailed Martin Gilillard.
The screen will project what is displayed by the headset so people around can participate in the experience. Photography: Meta.
The outlet devotes much of its space to trying out the Meta Quest 2 with a large LED screen wall that will broadcast what the person is seeing in the VR headset. Several games will be offered for trial such as Beat Saber, GOLF+ or Real VR Fishing.
It will also be possible to try out Meta Portal video calls and Ray-Ban Stories connected glasses with an employee.
The Meta Store wants to put its augmented and virtual reality devices in as many hands as possible. It must be said that Mark Zuckerberg aims to replace smartphones with his connected devices in the coming years. The opening of this store is also part of a competitive dynamic. Google, one of its future competitors, opened its first permanent store in the summer of 2021.