Meta Plans New Best Buy Pop-ups to Unify Demos of AI Glasses and VR Headsets
Meta announced that it is rolling out updated kiosks inside of Best Buy, the biggest electronics retailer in the US. The new 900 square-foot “store in a store” offers a place for customers to demo Meta’s AI glasses and VR headsets.
The News
Meta has a long-running relationship with Best Buy and is no stranger to placing in-store kiosks with trained staff in stores to give customers the opportunity to go hands-on with its hardware. However, the company’s most recent kiosks have focused primarily on its AI glasses, creating an apparent divide between older, separately placed kiosks focused on Quest headsets.
Now the company says it’s rolling out a more unified experience, called “Meta Lab @ Best Buy,” an expanded kiosk that includes AI glasses and VR headsets in the same space, both of which are available for a hands-on experience.
The company says the Meta Lab spaces are “designed for hands-on discovery, where people can explore Meta’s expansive lineup of AI glasses and VR headsets through interactive demos, smart mirrors, personalized fittings and more—all with support from dedicated Meta Sales Specialists.”
Meta plans to roll out 50 such spaces in Best Buy locations across the US and Canada, and notes that the following locations will be the first to open this Summer:
- San Carlos, CA
- Roseville, MN
- Woodland Park, NJ
- Greenville, SC
- Columbus, OH
The new Meta Lab @ Best Buy spaces appear to be a natural outgrowth of the company’s Meta Lab pop-up locations that rolled out in late 2025 to give the company a temporary boost to its retail presence in support of the Ray-Ban Display launch. These spaces also included Quest headsets and demos. Some of the Meta Lab pop-up locations have become permanent retail locations.
My Take
The move comes after Meta’s aggressive shift in focus away from its VR business and toward its AI glasses business, which has left many unsure of Meta’s long-term commitment to VR.
Meta launched Ray-Ban Display—its first AI glasses with a display—in late 2025. At the time the company launched new Best Buy kiosks which were exclusively focused on its AI glasses, and didn’t even include Meta’s VR headsets for sale. Meta was seemingly rushing these kiosks out the door because the company opted not to sell Ray-Ban Display to anyone without an in-person fitting. The need to deploy the kiosks in time for the launch of Ray-Ban Display is probably why we didn’t see the initial kiosks include Quest headsets at the outset. And, indeed, this is likely because of the rather abrupt shift in Meta’s focus toward its AI glasses.
With the new Meta Lab @ Best Buy spaces, the company’s retail strategy is catching up to its product strategy. While we probably can’t infer too much about what this means for Meta’s long-term commitment to VR, it at least tells us that the company wants to make sure all of its hardware can be seen together in one retail space.
In any case, seeing more spaces that offer hands-on demos of VR headsets is a good thing. The VR experience remains almost impossible to describe to someone who has never used a modern headset; actually trying on a VR headset is a reliably mind-blowing experience for first-time users. But it’s difficult to give people that opportunity at scale.
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Filed under: XR Industry News - @ 8. Juni 2026 20:30