Meta has announced that the LA-based pop-up store will return as the flagship retailer. This is expected to arrive along with more meta brand pop-ups in New York and Las Vegas.
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The company opened its first retail store in Burlingame, California in 2022.
At the time, Meta Quest 2, Ray-Ban Story Smart Glasses (now called Ray-Ban Meta), and the now-deprecated Facebook Portal Smart Home Devices appeared. The store still exists, but it also stocks new devices in Quest 3, Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) and soon-to-be-released Metaray-Ban Display Glasses.
Meta, which is partnered with Essilorluxottica, already has a fairly wide mix of online and brick-and-mortar retailers, including Ray-Ban Stores, Lenscrafters, Sunglass Hut, Best Buy and Meta’s online storefronts. And I’m trying to get a little more.
Now, Meta says it revived the LA pop-up on October 24th last year. This is said to expand to more than 20,000 square feet of permanent retail space. From a perspective, it’s as big as the larger trader Joe and one of the new Ardi.
The multi-level retail concept, located on Melrose Avenue, is being launched on a theme. Meta says he will be skating in Southern California from Dogtown to the present,” which will celebrate the Santa Monica skating scene and its evolution.
Expansion is also a good reason. The new flagship store is a full lineup of smart glasses and XR headsets, as well as Ray Bay Meta Meta Glasses. This includes Metaray-Ban Display and Metaneural Band, Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2), Oakley Meta HSTN, Oakley Meta Vanguard, and Quest 3/3S headsets.
According to Meta, both Burlingame and the LA Flagship Store will be holding a “Premium Demo Experience” of Metaray-Ban Display Glasses, but you can expect a similar experience right away in pop-ups in both Las Vegas and New York City.
The Las Vegas pop-up is scheduled to open on October 16th in Winn Las Vegas, which includes 560 square feet of space. The New York pop-up will open on November 13th on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.
My take
Metaray-Ban display glasses were the biggest news coming out of Connect last week, but the glasses that will be released soon may not have been filmed due to wide availability. It’s not just they’re finished Double the price Although it’s $800 for smart glasses that only audio is $100, in reality you’ll need to have a face-to-face consultation to find the right size for both the glasses and the neural bands included. This means booking a demo at the above stores.
And despite its commitment to a second permanent retailer, Meta’s own brick and mortar ambitions don’t look very broad either. That’s not the case in the short term at least. But that may change in the end, as true all-day glasses replace smart glasses The next big thing. But let’s not go any further than ourselves.
Smart glasses with built-in display (i.e. do not have AR glasses) are in the same “one” stage VR experienced years ago. This is caught up in the fact that users need to make sure they fit (and look better) in the first place.
However, the company will likely need those retail chops if they want to seed more, as the current “experimental” first Gen for Metaray-Ban Display will replace more mature hardware The best Metabrand Image Version – A familiar model other than its biggest future rival, Apple.
You can easily buy it on Best Buy or Online, but there is a reason that every major city has one or two (or three) Apple Stores. Repairing, trade and access to the entire range of devices is all important aspects to physical retail, but perhaps more important Tangible brand image It comes with it. Meta is not actually there now. Metastore is possible nice? If the location of LA is any indication, They definitely try it.
But soon, the company’s 2024 LA pop-up appears to be relying on its location on Melrose Avenue and serving the company enough to pump a more mature smart glasses platform along with the new display models. After all, after its release in 2023, Ray-Ban Meta has sold over 2 million Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 1) and more than just the App Store.
But the real award is that AR glasses have not yet arrived all day, and Meta knows that. And they may be preparing it now. Now let’s get it method Before us.
The next big warning for prediction is whether the meta really wants to go to the toes with Apple. Anyway, this is my imagination retail playbook meta. I’m glad that I can always deny it. I have no special information. It’s just speculative predictions from watching the company move over the past decade.
- 2026 – 2027: Permanent retail intentional creep based on the performance of pop-ups during the smart glass phase. It could probably cover two generations of display glasses.
- Before 2030:Meta releases its first AR device (meta says before 2030) and more flagship retailers will be added. The company still relies on the Essilorluxottica partnership to demo and move products.
- Nearly 2030: A second generation of AR glasses has arrived and marks a more mature ecosystem of hardware and apps. A wider deployment of permanent retailers in major cities.
If Meta wants to be like Apple, that’s it.
