Meta Lab Opens Global Flagship in West Hollywood

Meta Lab has opened its first flagship location at 8600 Melrose Ave., within West Hollywood’s trendy Design District.   The location is the first of its kind for the company formerly known as Facebook.

The interactive, first of its kind, Meta Lab is open 10am-7pm everyday.  WEHOonline recently caught up with John Koryl, Vice President of Meta Retail, who told us, ‘The first Meta Lab was on the Facebook campus in Burlingame, California which started 3-4 years ago and served as a proof of concept.  This is the first one in the wild, our first permanent flagship store.   Over 15,000 square feet, we are very proud of it.”

WEHOonline: Are there leases signed for new Meta Labs? Not only do we have the Meta Lab here, the flagship, but we also have a location in Las Vegas, were opening in the next couple of weeks in New York and theres a few more after that we have not announced yet.

WEHOonline: Tell me what goes on inside here?  First, you start as Meta, thats what we build upon here.  We have a community where people are able to express their creativity and all their self expression.  What we have here are the products that allow you to stay in the moment.  Instead of looking down at your phone all the time, I’m in my glasses capturing an image, I’m in my glasses and listening to music, but can still hear the ambient noise.  What we want to do is create an environment where people feel very comfortable, it’s a reflection of them, and they experience our product in a different way.  What we are trying to do at a retail level – the first physical manifestation of the brand for many people.  The physical store, and the physical glasses that you are trying on.  How do we protect the brand?  How are we in well lit places.  I look at West Hollywood as the perfect location for a flagship.   You get a great crosssection of people, you have people internationally, people nationally, you have a great, striving local community.  You have a lot of artists and a lot people who understand what Meta is all about.

The second thing, we are here to deliver great experiences.  We work with 3rd party partners, we have a wonderful partner in Laurel with EssilorLuxottica, Best Buy, Target and Verizon, but nobody tells the story quite like yourself, and what we are trying to do here is tell that story and deliver those great experiences.  We are not going to open thousands of new stores, what we are honestly going to do is create these stores as learning environments.

WEHOonline: Whats inside the store?   All the product that you want to test drive. Is there A Facebook section?   There is not a Facebook section, think of it as a product section.  Ray Ban section, Oakley section.  The Meta-Ray ban displays, the Meta-verse, that is upstairs.  We have demo rooms, immersion rooms; we have a lot of areas where you can actually spend time with the product and makes sure it suits your needs before you leave. 

WEHOOnline: Do you have training here on how to use the product?  Oh yeah, we don’t want anybody to leave without having full knowledge of exactly what the product is, what is can do for their life, and how it can impact them.  For folks that are visually or physically impaired the Meta’s ‘neuro-band’ will train you.  The neuro band is a wearable wrist device that uses electromyography (EMG)sensors to translate subtle nerve signals and muscle movement from your wrist into digital commands, primarily for controlling Meta’s Ray Ban Dispaly glasses.   It allows for hands-free, discreet interaction with augmented reality (AR) interfaces.  

Meta Lab is open everyday from 10am to 7pm.

Disclosure:  The author has a financial interest in Meta Platforms, Inc.  which is featured in this narrative.