Best Buy Retail Investors Unimpressed Even As Meta Picks It As Exclusive 'Big Box' Retailer To Showcase New Ray-Ban AR Glasses

Best Buy's retail trading community was hardly moved, even as Meta Platforms Inc. picked the chain as the exclusive big-box retailer to sell and demo its new Ray-Ban augmented reality glasses in the United States.

"No one can bring a product like this to life like Best Buy, and we can't wait for our customers to try it out and experience how it can work in their daily lives," Jason Bonfig, Best Buy's chief customer, product, and fulfillment officer, said in a press release announcing the partnership.

Meta on Wednesday launched Meta Ray-Ban Display, its new generation of glasses that come with a Meta Neural Band, a wristband, to control them with hand and finger gestures. Starting at $799, they will be available at stores beginning Sept. 30.

The Mark Zuckerberg-led company is also selling the glasses at LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, and Ray-Ban stores; select Verizon stores will also feature them soon.

Best Buy, which will also sell the newly launched Oakley Meta Vanguard performance AI glasses, is adding "Meta space" and specialist staff in hundreds of stores to help consumers try on and demo the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses. The exclusive partnership with Meta is expected to drive traffic to Best Buy stores.

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment remained in the 'bearish' zone, unchanged over the past week, with 'low' message volume, with the stock headed for its second straight weekly decline.

"Honestly, the ones [BBY stores] in NJ I have seen last few years are on life support. The $30 put for 1/27 is very cheap and worth a bet. Seems like Walmart, Amazon, Etc have made this company useless," wrote one user earlier this week.

Earlier this week, Argus maintained a 'Hold' rating on Best Buy but said the company's investments in e-commerce and management's adaptability support confidence in its ability to launch new initiatives. The firm added that Best Buy could benefit from demand for new computers, tablets, phones, and wearables optimized for artificial intelligence, and noted it would "strongly consider" upgrading the stock to 'Buy'.

BBY shares have traded in a see-saw pattern in recent months and are down 14.1% year-to-date.

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