Meta won't say how much it's paying its first retail workers

The company formerly known as Facebook is getting into retail, and therefore, is starting to employ retail workers.

Meta announced Monday (April 26) that it is opening its first brick-and-mortar shop, called the Meta Store. The 1,500 square-foot space in Meta's Burlingame, California campus will be a place where customers can try out and buy Meta's products, including the Quest 2, Portal, and mixed reality Ray-Ban Stories glasses.

The Meta Store will open for business on May 9. Credit: Meta

Photos of the store depict "retail associates" getting hands-on with customers as they try out the products. But Meta isn't disclosing how much those associates will be paid or whether they'll get benefits for that work.

"Our retail associates are vendors," Meta said in response to Mashable's questions about the employment status and compensation of Meta Store workers. "We contract out many of our operational functions so our teams can focus on innovation and our mission to bring the world closer together." Meta did not answer questions whether the vendors would be salaried or paid hourly, nor did they provide an hourly wage.

A Meta Store retail associate in action. Credit: Meta

While Apple Store workers are employed by Apple, it would make sense that more one-off shop experiments — like the pop-up stores Google has put up during the holidays — employ vendors rather than full-time employees. It's not clear which bucket the Meta Store falls into. While the store is not branded as a pop-up or an experiment, Meta said that it does not have plans to share for more Meta Store locations at this time.

Meta Store workers mind the real world shop while customers head into the metaverse. Credit: Meta

But it's an interesting time for a new Big Tech company to step into retail in any capacity. Over the last week, workers at two U.S. Apple Stores took formal steps towards unionizing. There are reportedly at least three other stores where employees are organizing for higher wages, greater accountability for workplace abuses, improvements to scheduling and workload, and more.

Given the current climate of retail worker organizing, if Meta wants to sell the Metaverse with the help of retail employees, the benefits and compensation had better pass muster in the real world.