Facebook-owner Meta Set to Launch Physical Store to Promote Metaverse

Facebook owner Meta wants to do more than just sell their virtual reality headsets, smart glasses, video chat devices, and other products online. They want customers to test their products on hand for better promotion of their products.

Meta announced on Monday that it would launch its very first retail store on May 9. The building will be a 1,550-square-foot space located in Burlingame, California, where the social network's campus is also placed at.

The tech company has been serious in promoting their Metaverse and creating consumer hardware that they are going up against tech giants like Google and Apple that are also operating with physical stores.

However, products such as VR headsets and smart glasses are yet to become mainstream. Hence, Meta is hoping that by promoting their products and letting people test their technologies will hype up Metaverse.

"Once people experience the technology, they can gain a better appreciation for it. If we did our job right, people should leave and tell their friends," 'You've got to go check out the Meta Store,'" Martin Gilliard, head of the Meta Store, said in a statement released by the company.

Virtual Reality

The store is set to feature products such as Meta's pair of smart glasses with Rayban that enables the user to snap photos and 30-second videos. Meta will also open its lineup of video chat devices called Portal, which was introduced and popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, they will also let customers test the company's new VR Headset, the Quest 2, and visitors will also have the chance to play games like Beat Saber, Real VR Fishing, Supernatural, and Golf Plus on the device, while a wall-to-wall curved LED screen will show what the player is witnessing in the virtual reality.

The Quest 2 VR headset and accessories will be available to be purchased in the store together with the Portal video chat devices. However, the Ray-Ban Stories specs are only available for testing since purchasers have to order directly from Ray-Ban.com.

Meta will soon launch a shop tab on meta.com to highlight their hardware products in one place.

Back in 2017, Facebook had rolled out the demonstration of its VR headsets in Best Buy Stores but it never had its own physical store. However, the demo stations were eventually halted in the US citing "seasonal changes."

In 2021, Meta's Reality Labs division, the unit behind their VR headsets and other products, reported that it lost more than $10 billion in 2021 since Facebook started investing in futuristic technology like augmented reality glasses.

Several tech giants have also launched their physical stores to promote their "futuristic" technologies. In 2021, Google had its first store in New York to sell its Pixel phones and Nest Speakers. Meanwhile, Snap, the owner of the popular messaging app Snapchat, launched temporary pop-up shops in New York and Los Angeles to promote their video-recording sunglasses Spectacles

The Meta Store is expected to run from Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla