Facebook, with its new identity Meta, is planning to go where it had not ventured before: physical retail stores. Reports now suggest that Facebook is planning to set up its own brick-and-mortar shop to possibly sell its VR headsets, AR glasses, Portal devices and more.
According to The New York Times( behind paywall), Meta has discussed opening retail stores that will eventually span the world. Quoting people with knowledge of the project and company documents, the report said "the stores would be used to introduce people to devices made by the company’s Reality Labs division, such as virtual reality headsets and, eventually, augmented reality glasses.” Facebook, it may be recalled, is building augmented-reality sunglasses in collaboration with Ray Ban named Stories.
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But what is its name?
The report said the first flagship store will likely open in Burlingame, California, where Meta has a Reality Labs office. The store is supposed to be very minimalist in its design, but structured to enhance the entire brand - did you just remember the iconic Apple stores? Suffice to say that the store will be a huge step away for a company that has been operating exclusively online since 2004.
Among the names that were bandied about for the new store were Facebook Commons, Facebook Innovations and Facebook Reality Store. They apparently settled for the staid Facebook Store. However, now the company having transitioned to Meta, the chosen name may no longer be continued with.
Meta having its own exclusive store makes sense in many ways. As of now, Facebook’s physical products are jostling for space at retail stores along with the products of other companies. Facebook (Meta), which prides itself for its exclusivity, may find this difficult to accept going forward. Seen in that perspective, the idea to have its own stores seems a step in the right direction.
The new stores, built to size and specification that Meta wants, can have the cutting edge technology that its products so demand.
Aside from, visual-altering products, Facebook is also mulling launching its own smart watch.
