STORY: [Thomas Kobayashi, Tech worker]

"This is history. And we are the first customers. I am so excited about it. I am so proud of it."

Facebook's owner Meta opened its first physical retail store

Location: Burlingame, California

Inside customers can test out Meta's virtual reality headsets

use its video calling devices and Ray-Ban smart glasses

It's hoped the store will promote the 'metaverse' concept

[Martin Gilliard, Head of Meta Store]

"I see this as an evolution of what we are kind of continuing to become. If we think about the internet moving from a desktop to a mobile experience, what we see now is a Web3 and Metaverse experience being created, and we've built products to be part of helping people connect with that."

The store is on the main campus for Meta's Reality Labs unit

so developers can learn directly from customers

[Frank Saunders, Church organist]

"Well my first impression is really, really positive. That's my first experience with augmented reality, virtual reality of any type. And I was very impressed. First visually, just with the visual experience."

[Sana Ahmed, Stay-at-home mother]

"So we plan to buy the Portal. I really like the Portal because we do family Zoom calls. We have family all over the world, so it's a nice product to have. You don't have to like hold the phone and be in touch. They can just kind of see you living your day to day life. And keep talking and doing whatever"