Meta Platforms Inc (META)

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Facebook Parent Meta May Soon Be Coming to a Store Near You
By: TheStreet | November 5, 2021

• As one of its first steps toward forging its new identity as a metaverse, Meta Platforms, parent of Facebook, may soon be expanding into retail.

As one of its first steps toward forging its new identity as a metaverse, Meta Platforms (FB) may soon be expanding into retail.

According to a report by The New York Times, the Menlo Park, Calif., company formerly known as Facebook has been in discussions about opening brick-and-mortar stores since last year.

While the project is not definitive and could end up falling through, the vision is to show visitors the various gadgets created by Meta's Reality Labs division: virtual reality headsets, portal video calling gadgets and the augmented reality glasses known as Stories developed with Ray-Ban. ESLOF

Envisioned with a minimalist design, the stores would be the first brick-and-mortar concept for a company that has been operating exclusively online since launching in 2004, the Times reported.

The flagship store had been slated to open in Burlingame, Calif., where Meta has a Reality Labs office.

The documents viewed by the NYT emphasized words like "curiosity," "closeness" and an "open and connected" world in its vision of the retail stores used to highlight online experiences.

Initial ideas for the stores included names like Facebook Commons, Facebook Innovations and Facebook Reality Store before Facebook Store was chosen — although the change to Meta may also put that into question, the paper said.

The company has said that its Oculus brand, which includes several virtual reality headsets, will be discontinued and released with the Meta name.

Currently, more than 3.5 billion people worldwide use Facebook and other Meta-owned apps like Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

At last check Meta shares were trading up 2% at $342.51.

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