Meta Store to launch in Burlingame

Burlingame will soon be home to the world’s first Meta Store, the technology company formerly known as Facebook announced this week.

The store will open May 9 at 322 Airport Blvd. at the company’s Reality Labs headquarters, where customers will be able to try or purchase virtual and augmented reality devices like the Quest 2 virtual-reality headset, or Meta’s Portal video calling devices.

Ray-Ban sunglasses with Meta tech that allow wearers to record video or use the glasses as headphones will also be available for demo, but purchase would need to be done though Ray-Ban, according to Meta.

The opening will mark a key physical-world milestone for the company’s virtual reality ambitions. Facebook rebranded itself as Meta last year with an announcement describing a “metaverse” allowing shared “immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together.”

The 1,550-square-foot storefront will include a demo area with a wall-to-wall curved LED screen displaying what headset-wearers are seeing while they try games including Beat Saber, GOLF+, Real VR Fishing or Supernatural.

“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,” Martin Gilliard, head of Meta Store, said in the blog post by the company Monday.

Meta began moving into the 767,000-square-foot Burlingame campus in 2018 to house its Oculus division, a virtual reality headset company Meta acquired the same year. Oculus has since been rebranded as Reality Labs.

“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,” Gilliard said.

The store will be open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.