Meta is opening a retail location for you to try out all that nightmarish Facebook hardware

It'll open on May 9th in Burlingame, California

When we talk about Facebook our thoughts immediately go to the social network itself, but Meta's interests extend far beyond just software, and we've been seeing a lot lately from its hardware projects. Not only do we have Oculus Quest headsets (now called Meta Quest, for reasons), but now that's joined by things like the Portal smart speakers and even spy glasses in the form of the Ray-Ban Stories. If you ever wanted a place where you could check out all that not-at-all-creepy, totally-respectful-of-your-privacy tech, you luckily now have one, as the very first retail Meta store comes to Burlingame, California.

This initial retail effort, which will supposedly help define a broader sales strategy, opens early next month. The whole point of this retail location is to let you try out Meta's tech for yourself before you actually buy it, and for some of it, that hands-on time sounds like it could be genuinely useful. For example, if you haven't tried out VR tech before, and you want to give it a spin before deciding if you actually want to play VR games at home, there's a Quest 2 demo to show off titles Beat Saber and Real VR Fishing. And if you were thinking about getting Ray-Ban Stories, you can try them on at the store and see which style works best for you.

Right now, it's not like Meta has a whole lot of tech for you to purchase, so this new location is really just to let you try out the cool VR stuff. Surprisingly, Meta says it won't shove the metaverse down the throats of visitors, but according to Martin Gillard, head of the store, "hopefully people will come in and walk out knowing a little bit more about how our products will help connect them to it."

Meta's inaugural store launches on May 9th and will be open from Monday through Friday at 322 Airport Boulevard in Burlingame, California.