Meta brings virtual reality closer by opening a tech hardware store

The 144 square meter Meta Store will open on the 9th of May on Meta’s campus in Burlingame, California, located in close proximity to Meta’s Reality Labs HQ, which is currently working on building its metaverse.

The retail store will offer customers a hand-on-experience with VR hardware and acquaint them with the Meta Portal, Ray-Ban Stories and the Meta Quest 2 VR goggles. Alongside the physical shop, Meta launched an online store that will allow VR enthusiasts to browse or shop products in a digital shop. In-store, customers will be able to experience interactive demos, test Meta Portal video-calling, familiarize with Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses created in collaboration with Meta, and dive into the VR realm with the novel Meta Quest 2 demo kit. “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.’” – said Martin Gilliard, Head of Meta Store. The aim of the store is to show people the possibilities new technology has to offer and prepare them for a metaverse that is currently in the making. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg stated that Meta would start working on digital asset tools within the project Horizon Worlds - a VR platform launched by Meta at the end of last year. The goal is to aid creators in selling virtual objects in the Metaverse, however, a high transaction fee on the Horizon platform can substantially slow down the adoption of the project.