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Meta has been working on plans to open physical stores and hire retail workers, Business Insider has learned.

The company has an ongoing project to expand its retail footprint, which is not broadly known internally yet, according to an internal communication seen by BI. The communication also said Meta plans to hire retail employees.

Meta has only one physical retail space, called Meta Store, which it opened on its campus in Burlingame, California, in 2022. The store lets shoppers test out some of its hardware products, including its Meta Quest VR headsets and Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, much like its rival Apple, which has more than 500 retail stores globally.

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It’s unclear how many stores Meta might open and on what timeline, but it experimented with the idea last year by opening a pop-up store, Meta Lab, to sell its smart glasses in Los Angeles.

Meta declined to comment.

An expansion could give a sales boost to its hardware products, such as smart glasses, which Meta sold more than 1 million units last year. In an all-hands meeting earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it was a “great start” but “not going to move the needle and the business in a core way.” He added that 2025 would offer an indication of whether the product line will become a “long-term grind” and whether, in the near term, AI glasses will become a “really prominent computing platform.”

The company is also on a mission this year to “drive sales, retention, and engagement,” according to an internal memo written by CTO Andrew Bosworth last year. He also said Meta plans to launch half a dozen more AI-powered wearables this year.

Meta is set to face more competition in that space in the future, with OpenAI this month acquiring former Apple design chief Jony Ive’s startup to build a new type of device for the AI era.

Meta wouldn’t be the first Big Tech company to venture into retail stores. Amazon opened its first brick-and-mortar store in late 2015 and has since expanded with different brands, including Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go. However, Amazon has scaled back some of those stores in recent years.

Apple, meanwhile, has made brick-and-mortar an important part of its sales strategy. Its sleek stores are located in flagship locations around the world, and are designed to be a space where consumers can explore its suite of products and engage with the brand.

Microsoft closed all of its retail stores during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but continues to operate a small number of “Experience Centers” and more than 40 “Innovation Hubs.”

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