The grand opening of Meta’s flagship retail store in West Hollywood, Los Angeles kicked up November 1st, an immersive two-story space on Melrose Avenue that marks a bold push into physical retail by the tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram. Spanning more than 20,000 square feet, the store, officially named Meta Lab, is designed as an interactive playground where visitors can experiment with the latest Meta smart glasses and VR headsets, blending technology with the city’s skate and street culture.
Inside, LA’s vibrant culture sets the tone:
- Custom graffiti by Los Angeles muralist Saber (Ryan Weston Shook) and installations inspired by local skateboarding legend Mark Oblow
- A miniature skate park for product demos
- A vinyl listening room to showcase the audio quality of Meta’s smart glasses
- Spaces for social content creation, plus pop-up workshops and live events with local creatives.
Try Before You Buy: The Future of Wearables
Visitors are invited to conduct hands-on demos with Meta’s Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, the newest Meta Neural Band, Oakley Meta HSTN, and the full Meta Quest VR suite. Exclusive to Meta Lab, appointments are required for premium eyewear trials, while drop-in VR and AR experiences are open to all.
“Glasses are the ideal form factor for both AI and the metaverse. They enable you to let an AI see what you see, hear what you hear, and talk to you throughout the day,” Zuckerberg said during Meta’s earnings call. “And they let you blend the physical and digital worlds together with holograms.”
The flagship represents Meta’s answer to the experience-driven retail pioneered by Apple and Google, putting technology directly into customer hands to demystify the emerging world of wearable AI devices.
From Pop-Ups to Permanent Presence
Meta Lab is the company’s second permanent retail location after its Burlingame, California debut in 2022. The LA store grew out of a string of successful pop-ups, including a high-profile activation at Wynn Las Vegas in October 2025 and planned events in New York and Phoenix later this year.
Meta also showcased its wearables through select retailers like Best Buy, LensCrafters, and Ray-Ban stores as it ramped up hardware for mass adoption.
Why West Hollywood—and Why Now?
LA’s skate and street culture is a testbed for next-gen social hardware, echoing past booms in sunglasses, just as Ray-Bans went stratospheric after being worn by Tom Cruise in Risky Business and Top Gun.
Impact and Industry Context
Meta currently holds roughly 60% of the global smart glasses market share, but competition with Apple Vision Pro and new Google glasses is heating up. Immersive retail is now a strategic necessity. People need to learn about how the glasses work. There’s this network effect that’s built from there, but all that starts with educating the user as to what these glasses can do.
As Meta integrates VR, AR, and AI into eyewear and headsets, its flagship in Los Angeles invites a new generation to discover, play, and inhabit the future on their own terms.
