A Store Expansion Built Around a Face-Worn Product
Meta Lab is nearly doubling its physical footprint. The company confirmed to Modern Retail that it will open six new standalone stores this fall: Houston, which opened September 10, followed by Atlanta, San Diego, Chicago, Scottsdale and a location at Moynihan Station in New York City [1].
That brings the total to fourteen locations, up from eight before last week, a list that includes flagship stores in Los Angeles, New York and Honolulu [1]. The expansion follows Meta's June rollout of AI-glasses demo counters inside Best Buy, a partnership now on track to reach 50 locations by the end of 2026 [1].
Why Is Meta Betting on Physical Stores for a Software Company?
Meta is opening stores because AI glasses are a wearable, fit-dependent product that Meta's leadership believes cannot be sold convincingly online alone. The company frames the glasses as a personal, even vulnerable, purchase that customers need to try on before buying [1].
“We're selling a lifestyle-slash-fashion product for the most important real estate you have: your face.”
Matt Jacobson, vice president and creative director at Meta, described the calculation to Modern Retail in terms of where the product physically sits.
Meta Lab began as a pop-up at Meta's Connect conference in September 2024. More than 90% of attendees visited it, and over one in four made a purchase, a conversion rate that pushed Meta toward permanent retail by that November [1]. Jacobson said the company has no long institutional history running stores, so it is deliberately experimenting with formats: standalone flagships, shop-in-shops inside another retailer, and mall locations [1].
How Big Is the Market Meta Is Chasing?
Smart glasses are still a small category relative to phones, but they are growing fast. Revenue for the category grew 233% over the twelve months ending in May, according to Circana data cited by Modern Retail [1].
Meta and Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica together control more than 80% of the global smart glasses market, per a Counterpoint Research report [1], a concentration TechCrunch separately confirmed when Meta launched its lower-priced Meta Glasses line [3].
Meta widened its price ladder in June with a $299 line called Meta Glasses, built with EssilorLuxottica but sold without Ray-Ban or Oakley branding, positioned at least $80 below the entry-level second-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses [2].
That pricing move, paired with the retail expansion, points to a company trying to widen the funnel on two fronts at once: more price points, and more places to physically try the product before buying it.
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Smart glasses revenue growth (12 months to May 2026) | 233% | Circana, via Modern Retail [1] |
| Meta + EssilorLuxottica market share | 80%+ | Counterpoint Research [1] |
| Meta Lab store count, pre-expansion | 8 locations | Modern Retail [1] |
| Meta Lab store count, after fall openings | 14 locations | Modern Retail [1] |
| Best Buy shop-in-shops by end of 2026 | 50 locations | Modern Retail [1] |
| Meta Glasses starting price (June 2026 launch) | $299 | CNBC [2] |
What Do Retail Analysts Make of the Meta Lab Bet?
Analysts see Meta Lab as useful for adoption and product feedback, but they caution the category itself remains niche rather than a mass-market replacement cycle like phones. Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData Retail, told Modern Retail that expectations for smart glasses becoming as ubiquitous as smartphones are overstated, and that once purchased, the devices "won't be on a rapid replacement cycle in the same way other devices are" [1].
Nicole Greene, a vice president and analyst at Gartner, took a more bullish view, calling Meta Lab a "win-win-win" that drives hardware adoption, changes consumer behavior around personalized technology, and benefits Meta's broader AI ecosystem [1]. Both analysts agreed the stores serve a real function beyond direct sales: introducing the product category to new shoppers and feeding data back into product development [1].
The Privacy Problem Stores Alone Can't Solve
Physical retail builds trust in the fitting room, but Meta's wearables face a separate credibility problem in the field. In May, the Texas attorney general opened an investigation into Ray-Ban Meta glasses over potential privacy violations, and in January the NYPD's counterterrorism unit warned officers the glasses posed a possible security threat [1].
Jacobson acknowledged the tension directly, telling Modern Retail that Meta is "taking the responsibility to explain to people how they work and why they work, and encourage people to use the product responsibly" [1].
- Glasses-wearers have been documented recording people without consent, some publishing the footage as pranks, a pattern that led social media users to nickname the devices "pervert glasses" [1].
- Fortune reported that smart-glasses shipments without a display surged as adoption accelerated, intensifying scrutiny of how the cameras get used in public settings [5].
- In August, Meta said it began automatically disabling the camera when it detects physical tampering with the recording indicator light [1].
What This Means for Commerce and Retail Decision-Makers
Meta Lab is a case study in using physical retail to solve a trust and fit problem that no product page can solve alone. For any retailer or brand launching a genuinely new hardware category, whether AI wearables, connected devices or anything worn on the body, this is a reminder that experiential retail still carries commercial weight when the buying decision is personal.
The store network also functions as a feedback loop. Meta uses Meta Lab locations to test regional merchandising, from Hawaii-made furniture in Waikiki to New York-specific laser engraving, and to gather signal ahead of its next hardware cycle [1].
For omnichannel operators, that pairing of an always-on digital storefront with a small footprint of high-touch physical locations, rather than a large-format rollout, is a deliberate, capital-light way to test demand before scaling a new category further.
Meta's parallel Best Buy shop-in-shop program, set to reach 50 locations by the end of 2026, shows the other half of the playbook: borrowing an established retailer's foot traffic instead of building it from scratch everywhere at once [1]. Retailers weighing how to introduce an emerging, trust-sensitive product category have both models to study before committing to either one.
Sources
- [1]Modern Retail, Meta Lab, known for AI glasses, is nearly doubling its retail store footprint — modernretail.co
- [2]CNBC, Meta announces new smart glasses starting at $299, as Zuckerberg keeps pushing wearables — cnbc.com
- [3]TechCrunch, Meta debuts new, cheaper smart glasses under its own brand — techcrunch.com
- [4]Retail Dive, Meta signs 10-year lease for Manhattan Meta Lab NYC store — retaildive.com
- [5]Fortune, Instagram cracks down on growing 'pervert glasses' problem with Meta Ray-Bans — fortune.com
