Meta to open new Bay Area store after hit product takes off

Weeks after Meta announced it would lay off more than 2,000 Bay Area employees, the social media and technology giant plans to sell its artificial intelligence products and virtual reality headsets at Best Buy. 

Read more Berkeley death from rat-linked infection serves as ‘wake-up call,’ expert says

Best Buy said on Monday that it has partnered with Meta to launch Meta Lab spaces inside more than 50 Best Buy stores across the U.S. and Canada. Meta Lab is set to open at select Best Buy locations this month, with the San Carlos outpost among the first Bay Area stores to feature Meta Lab. A Best Buy employee at the San Carlos store told SFGATE over the phone that that location expected to debut Meta Lab by June 19.

According to the news release, Meta Lab spaces will be 900 square feet and include Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses as well as Meta Quest 3S VR headsets. Customers will be allowed to try on and demo Meta merchandise, too. Christa Wittenberg, vice president of global retail sales at Meta, said in the news release that Meta Lab locations are immersive and hands-on spaces that will show customers how “stylish, fun, and personal AI glasses and VR really are.” 

Meta’s new retail concept comes at a turbulent time for the company. Meta executives have been slashing their workforce, most recently cutting 8,000 in global layoffs. Those cuts have hit engineers at Meta’s Reality Labs, which develops the virtual reality and wearable tech that Meta plans to sell at Best Buy stores. In April, Meta said it planned on “right-sizing” its Reality Labs in an effort to remain sustainable following sluggish growth in the VR industry. But Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses have become a runaway hit, with over 7 million smart glasses sold in 2025, according to Ray-Ban’s parent company. 

Read more Video shows what led up to ‘horseplay’ shooting between Pasadena police officers