Metaverse Walmart

Submission 10,619

Part of a series on The Metaverse. [View Related Entries]

About

Metaverse Walmart refers to a viral video of a virtual reality shopping experience inside an online Walmart. Although the video was created in 2017 for the SXSW music festival, it wasn't until January 2022 that the video trended on Twitter, where users thought it was Walmart's vision for grocery shopping inside The Metaverse run by Meta.

Origin

In March 2017, the virtual reality company Mutual Mobile was approached by Walmart to create a fully immersive, virtual reality shopping experience to debut at the SXSW music festival. Detailed within a blog post on Mutual Mobile's website,^[1] the company wanted to show within the demo how potential shoppers could virtually pick up products, read labels, talk to virtual associates and fill their shopping carts. This demo aimed to show the potential of retail VR and put Walmart ahead of its competition.

Although the full-length demo can be viewed in the Mutual Mobile blog post,^[1] on September 13th, 2018, Mutual Mobile uploaded a two and a half minute trailer video to YouTube.^[2] The video (shown below) received roughly 17,000 views over the course of three years.

Spread

The demo video didn't receive attention en masse until January 3rd, 2022, when Twitter^[3] user DigitalisHomo tweeted a two and a half minute excerpt from the demo along with the caption, "This is how Walmart envisions Shopping in the #Metaverse. Thoughts?" The tweet (shown below) received roughly 28,300 likes over the course of three days.

This is how Walmart envisions Shopping in the #Metaverse.Thoughts? 💭 pic.twitter.com/5l7KhoBse7

— Homo Digitalis (@DigitalisHomo) January 3, 2022

As the tweet trended on Twitter, users humorously reacted to it within the replies, starting notably on January 5th. For instance, Twitter^[4] user ScribblerMcgee was the first to go viral for a reply where he asked earnestly, "What is the advantage compared to the current supermarket website experience?" The reply received roughly 8,200 likes in one day. Twitter^[5] user garethlwatkins then replied to ScribblerMcgee, also going viral, receiving roughly 14,900 likes in one day (thread shown below).

Humorous replies continued to be posted on January 5th, like one from Twitter^[6] user ohsurehaha (shown below, left) that made a joke about online shopping being preferable because you don't have to walk around and talk to people. The reply gained up to 6,500 likes in one day. Twitter^[7] user conkerhimself also made a joke about the solitary pros of online shopping (shown below, right). Their reply received roughly 23,000 likes in one day.

Twitter^[8] user JaneOst_ also posted a tweet on January 5th that made a joke about a mass shooting having already happened inside the Metaverse Walmart (shown below). It received roughly 22,100 likes in one day.

Other Twitter users posted jokes and memes about shoplifting in virtual reality, like Twitter^[9] user paradoomer, whose tweet (shown below, top) received roughly 3,200 likes in one day. Twitter^[10] user tytacobell posted a tweet with a video on January 5th, using it to make a joke about shoplifting a PS5 from the Metaverse. The tweet (shown below, bottom) received roughly 2,600 likes in less than 24 hours.

Me escaping Walmart in the metaverse after shoplifting a PS5 pic.twitter.com/32iBWzyvyk

— Tyler 🌮 (@tytacobell) January 5, 2022

Memes and tweets were posted on Twitter going into January, incorporating other Walmart-themed memes into the trend like the Walmart Yodel Boy. Twitter^[11] user Sanchovies posed one such example, receiving roughly 14,900 likes in one day for his tweet (shown below).

The news spread to other platforms like Instagram ^[12] on January 5th, 2022, where a post from the account cryptonary received roughly 5,500 likes in less than 24 hours. Memes were also shared on Reddit, like one posted to /r/surrealmemes^[13] by Redditor FrozenCaveMoose on January 6th. The meme (shown below) used the Oh Shit I Took Both Pills format, and it received up to 3,000 upvotes in less than a day.

Videos were also shared on TikTok about the Metaverse Walmart, such as one (shown below) posted by TikToker^[14] artilonark. The video received roughly 43,300 plays and 2,200 likes in less than 24 hours.