Meta is getting physical with its first retail store

On April 25th, Meta announced their first retail space, in which customers will be able to get a firsthand look and feel of the company’s hardware devices. The store will officially open on Victory Day (May 9th) and will be accompanied by a dedicated Shop tab in meta.com.

The Meta Store is conveniently located near the company’s Reality Labs division in Burlingame, California. The venue will serve as a place to display the increasingly expanding range of hardware products that Meta produces. This includes Portal (the company’s line of video calling devices), Ray-Ban Stories (Meta’s take on smart glasses) and Quest 2 (the virtual reality headset that succeeded the Oculus line, after the latter was rebranded).

Meta wants, in its own words, the retail space to allow users to “experience the technology” in order to gain a “better appreciation for it”. Once there, customers will be able to play around with Ray-Ban Stories and experiment with the many different customisation options available. They will also be able to visit dedicated Portal and Quest 2 demo areas, where they can try the products for themselves.

The Meta Store will be just as much about the present as it is about the future. The main goal is not only to see what users can do with Meta’s devices today, but also to showcase how they can pave the way to the “metaverse”. For many, the concept still fails to make much sense, hence Meta’s ambition to “demystify” it.

On a more practical note, the retail space will also enable Meta to get some firsthand experience themselves. By allowing users to directly interact with its gadgets, the company will be able to gather some useful data and honest feedback. By extension, this should allow the tech giant to further refine its business strategy and shape its vision for the future of the metaverse.