Back in December 2018, I attended a networking event in Las Vegas at AREA15. It was basically an empty warehouse at that time—I vaguely recall there being a lit-up sculpture of some sort at one end of the building, but otherwise, it was just a bunch of people standing around and talking. Back then, I had no idea what the building was, but I later found out that it was a retail and entertainment complex scheduled to open in December 2019.
December 2019 came and went, and because of new ideas being implemented into AREA15, it didn’t formally open to the public until September 17, 2020. Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart’s grand opening was on February 18, 2021, and since then, I regularly saw a steady stream of advertising and organic social media coverage about it. I knew I wanted to check it out at some point, but I wasn’t in a particular rush to do so.
Earlier today, my friend Dani flew in to Las Vegas for a vacation with her family, and one of the things she had on her list of tourist activities was Omega Mart. I figured this would be a decent time to explore the installment for the first time, so I joined in.
The first section of Omega Mart resembled a regular supermarket… but with a strange twist. I’ve heard other people describe it as “walking through a grocery store while on LSD.” There are a lot of very strange products, and there are random hints sprinkled around that indicate something might be wrong.
From the supermarket area, there were a few pathways to a hidden area in the rear that had a completely different vibe. This section was basically a giant multi-floor maze of illusions, mini-games, and other attractions.
For admission, Dani paid US$64.00 for a general admission ticket and I paid US$54.00 for a discounted locals ticket, for a total of US$118.00.
Because we went on a Saturday, it was packed with people. Dani upgraded her ticket for US$3.00 (on top of the ticket prices above) to add on a scavenger hunt, but a lot of the special stations were already in use and also had a few people waiting in line. We originally thought the scavenger hunt was just a fun way to sprinkle in a few additional videos into the experience, but we later found out that it was actually a full-blown alternate reality storyline.
I’m conflicted about what my final verdict is, on whether or not I liked Omega Mart. However, I do have a few thoughts which might provide some further insight on why I can’t decide whether or not I would recommend going to Omega Mart.
The quantity of people there was overwhelming. In Omega Mart’s defense, I am on the extreme end of introversion, so I might just be biased here and could possibly be exaggerating how busy it was, but I had difficulty focusing on things in front of me because of the number of people around me. There were many times when I felt like we had to “dodge” bigger crowds so we weren’t wasting time just waiting around. It felt like we were sort of being “pushed,” assembly line style, to each subsequent intersection in the aisles and hallways. Some of the lore involved discovering surprises, but it wasn’t very surprising when you’ve just watched two other people uncover the surprise, such as a secret passageway through a hidden door.
I went into the experience having no idea what was going on, and I felt very lost for the first hour or so. I knew that I had entered some insane grocery store and I found the puns on the grocery products funny, but it never occurred to me what I was actually supposed to be doing. By the time we found the strange passageway through a “freezer” into the rear section of the mart, I was very surprised because I did not expect that at all. If I had a better plan from the beginning, I think my experience would’ve been more positive.
The layout of the rear area is extremely confusing. I think it was intended to be built as a maze, so I think having a map would’ve defeated the purpose, but we were going around in circles trying to find new things while re-visiting areas we had already seen a few times. On top of that, there was a certain room that seemed to be the most important in progressing the lore of the alternate reality storyline… except they had a really thick fog machine running, so I got a pretty bad headache and wanted to get out of that room as quickly as possible.
I think a simple way to put all this is that the barrier of entry is a bit high. You have to know what Omega Mart is about and how you “win,” otherwise there is a decent chance that you will miss important clues and hints that lead you the “next tier” of the exhibit. I know for a fact that if I had a better idea of the big picture of Omega Mart, I would’ve had more intrinsic motivation to be patient and go through everything more carefully, but because I was in a more casual mindset, I missed out on a lot of the experience.
As a side thought, I also think there is a near-guaranteed chance that there are at least a few people who never even found the rear section behind the grocery store (which was like 80%+ of the content) and left upset, wondering why admission was so expensive.
Based on my experience today, I would consider Omega Mart to be a “two visit” kind of place. I’d say it requires more than one visit for the optimal experience for most people, because I think a lot of the base “discovery” process happens during the first trip, and then you go into the second trip with a clear objective, knowing what you have to do to “emerge victorious.” I’d also say that it doesn’t require more than two trips, because Omega Mart is a very comprehensive and (presumably) static alternate reality puzzle, and it’s not like a regular art museum where you can go back every season and they’ll rotate out the exhibits with new material.
If you’re visiting Omega Mart and you are only able to do one visit, be it because of budgetary or time or other reasons, there are two routes you can take. The first is to do a lot of research about Omega Mart online so you know what to do right as you show up… though keep in mind that this will probably spoil a lot of the twists and turns in the lore for you. The other option is to allocate four or more hours for your trip and go very, very slowly and carefully through everything, doing multiple passes of everything and making sure to stand in every line and not skip anything.
Apart from the friend I accompanied this time, there have been a few other people who wanted to go to Omega Mart with me, so I am willing to give it one more shot (though I think going on a weekend during peak times would be a dealbreaker). With that being said, it’s definitely not for everyone, and it’s not something I would go to again by myself unless I had literally completely run out of other fun activities to do in Las Vegas.