Meta glasses are a workplace menace

Toru Hinkle was stocking shelves at Target in August when two customers asked for help with a price check. Hinkle told them the item was $20. They asked again. And again. After a while, Hinkle realized the exchange was a prank and spotted the glasses: Ray-Ban Meta frames with a blinking light, while the customers filmed the whole thing.

The scene got worse once Hinkle brought over a store manager. The customers kept pressing the same price question and, Hinkle says, deliberately misgendered her. What should have been a routine retail interaction turned into a small, ugly performance, with the smart glasses acting as the prop that made it possible.

That’s the part Meta keeps running into. The company likes to sell these glasses as convenient, stylish tech. But in a store, on a shift, in the middle of work, they can also look like a portable harassment tool with a camera built in. The blinking light may be there, but it doesn’t really solve the social problem.

The Verge says this is a workplace menace, and the label fits. Retail workers already deal with enough without having to wonder whether every customer is asking for help or auditioning for a clip.