The Las Vegas Supermarket That's More Than Meets The Eye
You walk into your local grocery store to pick up a jug of milk. It's supposed to be one of your usual shopping trips, but for some reason, you feel that something is wrong. The music playing over the speakers sounds familiar but warped just enough that you can't quite place your finger on it. The fluorescent lights seem brighter, flooding the aisles in sterile white light. The products on the shelves are nonsensical and strange. Just past the aisle where you pick up "spray-on meat in a can" and "sweat-scented nose detergent," you see the shadow of a fellow shopper, hazy and distant, lift over into the air and float twitchingly over the pyramids of giant soup cans and pre-packaged human tongues. As you finally get to the milk, you reach open and grab the final jug of milk way in the back — only to see an exact duplicate reaching for it on the other side of the fridge.
Fortunately, you'll be relieved to know this type of place only exists in dreams — kind of. Should you be of the mind that enjoys the fantastic and the weird, you'll be able to find a place that exists just like this. It's called Omega Mart, and it's the brainchild of entertainment company Meow Wolf. The grocery store — in reality, an interactive art installation — promises valued customers an unforgettable trip to the world of the surreal, weird, and inner workings of big business.
This Las Vegas store offers savings and surprises
"You have no idea what's in store for you," is the catchy jingle that tells you exactly what to expect. Located at Area 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Meow Wolf's fantastical art project combines the stereotypical American supermarket with the uncanny and the dream-like. So dedicated is the project's realism that both an employee training tape (complete with employees rapping about safety) and a promotion staring "Willie Nelson" — or more accurately, a "deepfake" of the famous outlaw country singer (via Vital Vegas).
KLAS 8 News explored the installation in-depth on New Year's Eve, traversing Omega Mart as if it were a "maze", finding secret doors and passageways that lead customers into different dimensions filled with psychedelic imagery and twisting layouts. BBC News describes it as a place where art and escape rooms meet, where guests are encouraged to solve a mystery regarding Omega Mart and its (also fictional) parent company DRAMCORP. Unlike your average Walmart, climbing through freezer doors or walking behind counters is strongly encouraged.
On February 17, 2022, Omega Mart celebrated one year since its grand opening (via the Las Vegas Sun) with more than a million shoppers exploring the sixty unique environments, hundreds of unique art pieces, and four massive main hubs — all while using their "employee loyalty cards" to unravel the riddles and puzzles behind Omega Mart.
If inter-dimensional grocery stores aren't for you, you may want to go to the most trusted grocery store in the United States.