Nice try Facebook, lmk when you can smell the tortilleria in the metaverse https://t.co/jU68VVBUrv
— EricaGrieder (@EricaGrieder) October 29, 2021
Regardless if you're excited for the metaverse or not, y'all don't have to wait for it to mature in order to get some H-E-B favorites. Texas Snax is here for that right now.
Back in early November 2021, mySA journalist Steven Santana reported that Meta asked H-E-B about metaverse grocery stores via Twitter. It did so shortly after the company changed its name from Facebook to Meta. This tweet must have been part of a campaign to get people to start thinking about the future of the internet.
So, what's the metaverse? To be honest, that's something that is still likely in flux.
Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues at Meta (fka Facebook) clearly think that it'll involve virtual reality (VR). That's when a person is immersed in a virtual environment to the extent that's reasonably technically feasible -- using a VR headset, for instance. It's a trend that's been hot several times before but really hasn't truly taken off yet.
The metaverse will also likely involve augmented reality (AR), too. AR keeps a person mainly in the physical environment but overlays some information on top of that. The once extremely popular game Pokémon GO is an example; the game allows players to hold up their phones to actual physical spaces. The phone then overlays a game environment with characters and landmarks that the player can interact with.
While we here at Texas Snax don't know exactly what Meta was thinking, here's a guess at what it was potentially trying to get at. Imagine a person donning a VR headset so that they can visit a virtual H-E-B. The person can stroll down the aisles and pick items off of the shelves to place in their shopping cart. When they're done and go through a checkout line, they confirm what's in their order and conduct a financial transaction so that H-E-B can collect those items to either deliver to person's home or to their car for a parking lot pick up.
The one thing that is still likely a long way's off is adding "Smell-O-Vision" to the experience. As noted in the tweet above, Houston Chronicle columnist Erica Grieder isn't too excited about a trip to H-E-B sans the aroma of freshly made tortillas.
That certainly sounds like an interesting proposition. We'll have to see how technology and culture evolve. A large part of that is how people think about Meta and other "big tech" companies. As Santana mentioned in his article, some people aren't thrilled by the prospect of tech companies encroaching into more parts of our lives. Other people, on the other hand, aren't concerned.
Regardless if the metaverse excites or abhors y'all, y'all don't have to wait to order H-E-B online. Texas Snax is here to ship H-E-B products to y'all's doorsteps right now.