Facebook and Instagram’s parent company has jumped into bricks-and-mortar retail with the opening of the flagship META store in California.
Unveiled yesterday, the unit sells physical products, including the Quest 2 virtual reality headsets and portal video calling devices. The store offers demos of various products, including the opportunity to try out the popular Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses that were developed by Facebook and Ray-Ban.
The store also features a VR space that lets customers try apps such as Beat Saber and Real VR Fishing. These VR demos are projected on enormous, curved LED screens. For now, there will be only one store based at the company’s campus in Burlingame, California at 322 Airport Boulevard.
It is not yet clear if Meta plans to eventually take the Meta Store beyond Burlingame, similar to what Apple began in 2001 with the rapid rollout of its Apple Stores around the world. But one thing is clear, even with the rise of a metaverse, physical retail still has its place in the market.
