Facebook discussed opening physical stores worldwide to get people hyped about its non-physical metaverse, report says

• Facebook discussed opening physical stores before it rebranded as Meta, The New York Times reports.
• Customers would try out and buy metaverse hardware at the stores, per documents seen by The Times.

Facebook discussed plans to open brick-and-mortar stores around the world to get people excited about its metaverse, The New York Times reported.

The stores would be places where people could try out metaverse hardware such as virtual reality headsets, per The Times. Documents viewed by The Times said the aim of the stores was to provoke emotions such as "curiosity" and "closeness," and would allow customers to test out the technology on a "judgment free journey."

The word metaverse is a term borrowed from science-fiction, and refers to a future version of the internet which people access through virtual-reality or augmented-reality headsets, rather than through screens on phones and laptops.

Meta's desire to push into the metaverse predates its rebrand. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg first publicly announced in July that he wanted Facebook to eventually become a "metaverse company," and the October rebrand cemented that ambition.

The Times said Facebook's discussions about physical stores began last year, long before it announced its big rebrand to Meta in October.

The Times cited documents showing that the stores could contain existing products including the company's video-chat device, Facebook Portal, and its Oculus VR headset. The Oculus Quest headset is set to be renamed "Meta Quest" next year to align with the company's overarching Meta rebrand.

Documents viewed by The Times showed that Facebook considered a suite of possible names for the stores that all had "Facebook" in them, with the company settling at the time for "The Facebook Store" as the lead candidate.

Per The Times, a flagship store was planned for Burlingame, California - but it was unclear whether that plan will continue, or indeed whether the company is still considering opening physical stores.

Meta did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider, and declined to comment when contacted by The Times.