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I visited Home Depot in the metaverse to try to understand why retailers are flocking to it, and the experience left me baffled but somewhat impressedhttps://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/i-visited-home-depot-in-the-metaverse-to-try-to-understand-why-retailers-are-flocking-to-it-and-the-experience-left-me-baffled-but-somewhat-impressed/slidelist/98582160.cms2023-03-12T15:51:55+05:30

I visited Home Depot in the metaverse to try to understand why retailers are flocking to it, and the experience left me baffled but somewhat impressed

Ben TobinMar 12, 2023, 15:51 IST

Hope Depot recently launched its first foray into the metaverse in Roblox, so I decided to visit and see what it was really like.

I'd never played on Roblox before, so I had to make an account.

Roblox is a free gaming platform with over 100 million active users, many of whom are children.

Once I finished creating my account, I was prompted to download and install Roblox.

While I'm not great with technology, the platform gave me an easy five-step guide to downloading it.

Overall, the setup process only took a few minutes.

And then the anticipation was almost over, as I could enter the "Radcliffe City" game where I could visit Home Depot's Virtual Kids Workshop.

I was asked to select between a "peaceful" and "loud" mode and opted for the latter.

After selecting my mode, I received a message that Radcliffe City had a map update, including "The Home Depot Event!"

Finally, I arrived in Radcliffe City, where I immediately was greeted by a Home Depot facade with a bright door instructing me to come in.

But as someone new to Roblox, I wanted to familiarize myself with the features of the platform, including free costumes for my avatar, before heading to Home Depot.

Ben Tobin

I also explored what tools were available at my disposal...

...and decided I'd be best equipped to explore this world with some bread.

I also played with various emotes for my avatar, with the dance pose action being my favorite.

Ben Tobin

After dressing up my avatar and playing with emotes, I decided to explore Radcliffe City and see what it had to offer, including a toy shop called "Toys N' Things" and a childcare facility called "ABC Daycare."

Ben Tobin

After dressing up my avatar and playing with emotes, I decided to explore Radcliffe City and see what it had to offer, including a toy shop called "Toys N' Things" and a childcare facility called "ABC Daycare."

I also visited a playground...

After a whole lot of dilly-dallying through Radcliffe City, I decided I was ready to visit the Home Depot Virtual Kids Workshop and was told very clearly on my screen that the game is an advertisement for the company.

I arrived outside of a virtual Home Depot shop after walking through the bright doors.

I headed straight into the shop and was greeted by a "KIDS WORKSHOPS" sign in colorful letters. The experience here was supposed to resemble the real-life Kids Workshops the chain holds in its stores.

The graphics were quite ugly, and I was baffled by the world, but I was also impressed with the recreation of The Home Depot environment on a virtual platform.

From labeled aisles to products from paint to power tools, the virtual Home Depot seemed like a pretty good advertisement for kids who might not be going to home improvement stores.

After exploring the store for a little bit, I was admittedly a little bit confused about what I was supposed to do in there.

I finally found a kind virtual Home Depot employee who told me to ""talk to my teammate at the Kids Workshop table to get started on your build."

I did as told and found the Home Depot employee at the Kids Workshop table, and I asked them "can I start a build?"

The Home Depot employee kindly agreed and sent me on my way to collect lumber.

When I found the lumber, I was then instructed to collect a hammer...

...and then nails...

...and then paint...

...and then I was finally ready to build.

The instructions were pretty easy, as I first clicked on a circle to "measure and cut the lumber."

Then I clicked again to grab the hammer.

For the third step, I clicked again to hammer the nails.

And finally, I clicked one last time to paint the bird house.

And voila, I had a bird house after the scavenger hunt and building process.

I did this whole process two more times for two other items.

First, I built a flower garden, following a similar collecting and building process.

Come the third item, a 2-seated car, I was a pro at finding items and building, so I completed the task quickly.

At that point, the building became a bit redundant, and there was nothing left to build, so I left the virtual Home Depot.

After toggling with my keyboard for a bit, I discovered that I could put the car I built to action and drive it around.

I drove it around, both (legally) on the road and (illegally) on grass.

It was the most fun part of this bizarre experience, and I decided I'd leave the metaverse on a high.

So I left the metaverse about an hour after toiling around, unsure if I'll ever come back. I can see what Home Depot is trying to do — connecting its in-person and virtual spaces — but I'm not sure how engaging or useful it really is to the average kid on Roblox.

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