Meta To Showcase the Metaverse in a Brick-and-Mortar Store
Meta is opening its first brick-and-mortar store to showcase the future of the metaverse. The Meta Store, which will open May 9 in Burlingame, California, will enable customers “to get hands-on experience with all our hardware products.”
The company said that while the 1,550 square feet store is small, it was important for it to be built near Reality Labs HQ, “where we’re helping build the metaverse.”
“At the Meta Store, we want you to interact with everything. We want you to pick stuff up. We want you to feel it,” according to the announcement.
The store will offer interactive demos with Portal, explain how Ray-Ban Stories work, and will have a first-of-its-kind immersive Quest 2 demo. The demo will enable customers to try Beat Saber, GOLF+, Real VR Fishing or Supernatural on a large, wall-to-wall curved LED screen that displays what is being seen in-headset.
“You’ll also get a 30-second mixed reality clip of your demo experience that’s yours to share,” Meta said in the announcement. In addition, Meta set up shop online to purchase Portal, Ray-Ban Stories and Quest all in one place.
“Having the store here in Burlingame gives us more opportunity to experiment and keep the customer experience core to our development. What we learn here will help define our future retail strategy,” said Martin Gilliard, Head of Meta Store. “Ultimately, our goal with the Meta Store is to show people what’s possible with our products today, while giving a glimpse into the future as the metaverse comes to life — and hopefully demystifying that concept a bit in the process.”
Barron’s reports that tech companies have had mixed results with physical retail stores. Apple retail stores, for example, have been successful, and play an important part in the company’s distribution strategy, with more than 500 locations around the world. On the other hand, Microsoft shut down its 83 retail stores in 2020, Barron’s added.
In March, Amazon said it would be closing all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores and pop-ups in the United States and United Kingdom to focus more on its grocery markets and a department store concept going forward, as GOBankingRates previously reported.
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