Meta to open first physical retail store with Ray Ban Stories partnership

Meta, formerly Facebook, has announced it is preparing the opening of its first physical retail space, allowing visitors to have a hands-on experience with all of the company’s hardware products.

Set to open May 9, the 1,550 square foot store is located in Burlingame, California, near its Reality Labs HQ, where Meta said it is working on building up the metaverse.

In a release, Marin Gilliard, head of the store, noted: “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.”

Alongside demos of its video call feature Portal and its virtual reality (VR) experience Quest 2, shoppers will also be able to try out Ray-Ban Stories, smart glasses created in collaboration with Meta that allow the wearer to listen to music, take photos and share content.

At the store, shoppers will be able to try on a range of styles, colours and lens types and will be directed to Ray Ban’s e-commerce website to purchase them.

The purpose of the store is to potentially demystify the metaverse concept, allowing visitors to try first-hand Meta products and exhibit what is possible.

“The Meta Store is going to help people make that connection to how our products can be the gateway to the metaverse in the future,” Gilliard continued. “We’re not selling the metaverse in our store, but hopefully people will come in and walk out knowing a little bit more about how our products will connect them to it.”