Meta Plans to Expand Retail Locations Amid Growing Smart Glasses Competition

Hey, so get this. Meta’s sorta been dancing around the idea of retail for ages. Like, they’ve had this one lonely store, but rumor has it, they’re finally about to dive in deeper. Saw a piece on Business Insider that spilled the beans—apparently, they’re looking to hire more folks for retail. I guess they’re tired of just doing those pop-up gigs. Late last year, there was this whole thing with a pop-up in L.A. Got a bunch of attention, actually.

Anyway, they might kinda go the Apple route with stores, but who knows? The details are still hush-hush. It’s not like they’ve painted a billboard with their plans. Oh, and speaking of pop-ups, they’ve done these collabs with Best Buy too, where you could try their XR headsets. Something about stepping into a store and seeing tech in action, right?

There’s this permanent spot they have in Burlingame, California, right next to their Reality Labs campus. Curious place, really. If feeling fancy, you can wander in and test out their Quest stuff and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

The real kicker, though, is the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses. These things are moving like crazy — over a million sold in 2024! Zuckerberg’s on cloud nine. Supposedly, they want to rev up production to hit 10 million by 2026. It’s kind of wild to think everyone might be walking around with mini cameras on their faces soon. They do all sorts of things: snap photos, play music, even chat with you (thanks, Meta AI).

Oh, and I almost forgot! Bloomberg’s chatter in April was about new glasses coming, some with displays, others sportier. More fashion-forward? Who knows. But it’s a competition now, with Google and Apple supposedly joining the smart glasses game. Google even teamed up with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Fancy, right?

And Apple’s apparently developing some super-efficient chip for their smart specs, too. Could be a game changer. Or not. I guess time will tell. Just think: a whole world where everyone’s wearing tech that looks like regular glasses. Imagine.