Meta planning London store to showcase smart glasses, VR headsets

Social media giant Meta plans to open its first physical store in London to boost interest in its virtual reality (VR) headsets and smart glasses.

Although the search is thought to be at a very early stage, the Facebook owner is exploring options for a physical location to permanently showcase such products, with London’s Oxford Street the most likely destination, property sources told The Telegraph.

Meta Labs, one of its subsidiaries, has also recently registered a trademark that will allow it to sell and demonstrate “virtual reality, mixed reality and augmented reality hardware and software” to shoppers in Britain.

The move is designed to help Meta boost take-up of its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered accessories, such as its Meta Quest headsets and Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Meta has been opening pop-up stores in the US under its Meta Labs brand, including Ray-Ban pop-ups in Los Angeles. The company’s smart glasses, produced in conjunction with Ray-Ban owner Essilor Luxottica, have seen sales triple in the past year as more users get to experience the technology.

Last year, Meta unveiled an advanced pair of augmented reality glasses that can project digital objects such as computer screens and video games into a wearer’s field of view.

Meta’s boss Mark Zuckerberg recently said that AI-enabled glasses “will be so ubiquitous in the future that people without them will struggle to keep up.

“In the future, if you don’t have glasses that have AI, or some way to interact with AI, I think you’re probably [going to] be at a pretty significant cognitive disadvantage compared to other people,” he told investors.

Meta has yet to comment on a possible London store opening.