Meta Plans To Open More Stores To Sell Headsets & Glasses

Meta plans to open more retail stores, Business Insider reports.

Currently there is a single physical Meta Store, in Burlingame, California beside one of the company’s campuses. Opened in 2022, Meta uses it to demo and sell its Quest headsets and the Ray-Ban smart glasses. For Quest, the Meta Store features a demo area with a massive wall display that shows a third-person view of the gameplay with the headset wearer’s body superimposed via a camera behind them.

Meta has also experimented with temporary pop-up retail experiences on several occasions in the past, for example for Oculus Go, but Business Insider’s report suggests the new stores will be permanent like the Burlingame location.

The report doesn’t say how many new stores Meta plans to open, nor what the timeline for doing so is.

Meta Opens First Store To Sell Quests, Portals, And Glasses

Meta’s campus in Burlingame, California is home to its first physical retail space where you can check out Quest 2 and its accessories as well as Ray-Ban Stories sunglasses and Portal video-calling devices. The store is officially open as of May 9 with interactive demos for “Beat Saber, GOLF+

A significant problem for the consumer VR industry since its emergence in the middle of the previous decade has been that VR is a technology that needs to be tried to be understood – and most people still haven’t tried good VR yet.

Further, factors like head shape, eyesight, and sensitivity to weight against sinuses can affect how comfortable a given person finds a head-mounted device, meaning there’s often a need for a physical demo before purchase.

Apple’s 500 physical stores are arguably one of its greatest advantages. The company offers demos of Apple Vision Pro at most of its stores in countries where it’s sold, wherein a staff member scans your head to pick the right strap and face pad size, alongside providing appropriate lens inserts for your prescription if you normally wear glasses. And since last year new and revamped Apple Stores even include a dedicated side room for these demos.

Apple’s New Stores Have A Dedicated Vision Pro Side Room

Contrary to the public perception of Apple’s sentiment on Vision Pro, the company’s new stores include a dedicated side room for the headset.

In a memo to staff in November, Meta’s CTO stressed the need to “drive sales, retention, and engagement” of its Quest headsets. Physical retail stores could be a vital part of achieving this goal.