Meta is Already Backing Off Its Future Retail Plans a Year After Opening Its First Physical Store

Meta’s nascent strategy to launch its own retail stores is already being undone, according to people familiar with the situation.

The company formerly known as Facebook only a year ago opened its first-ever physical store in California with a PR push celebrating it as a way to “experience” some of the metaverse, CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of a realistic virtual world. As part of the company’s metaverse strategy, the Meta Store serves mainly as a showroom for its Quest headset, where people can test out the hardware and purchase it. It was thought upon its opening to be the beginning of Meta’s retail ambitions. The company at one point discussed having stores open globally.

Those ambitions appear to have been short lived. Martin Gilliard, Meta’s head of store, left the company earlier this year after a nearly three-year stint leading retail efforts and heading up its physical retail plans and first store opening, according to two people who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. He has not been replaced, they said, and is now working at a VC-backed startup in “stealth” mode, his LinkedIn says.