Netflix Is Opening a Chain of Permanent Retail Stores

In an answer to a question that nobody seems to have asked, Netflix is reportedly planning on opening a series of brick-and-mortar locations where it will sell merch for its Netflix Originals, along with themed food and perhaps even unique fan experiences.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, the streaming giant is planning a series of permanent retail sites that will carry the name “Netflix House,” with the first two scheduled to open in the US in 2025 before expanding globally.

The news was shared by Josh Simon, Netflix VP of Consumer Products — a title that we never would imagined existed at Netflix before now. According to Simon, the venues will feature “a mix of retail, dining and live experiences,” including a Squid Game obstacle course.

In all fairness, this won’t be Netflix’s first foray into fan experiences, but it’s an oddly permanent one. Pop-ups such as The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience have surfaced in dozens of cities around the world. Netflix also opened a pop-up restaurant in L.A. earlier this year with food and drinks from its own celebrity chefs, and temporary stores have appeared in Paris, Las Vegas, and Chicago with Stranger Things merchandise, including the Stranger Things-branded frozen pizza and ice cream that it also sells at Walmart.

However, rather than the more ethereal and whimsical nature of those, Netflix House seems more like an attempt by the streaming giant to horn in on Disney’s turf by creating its own mini-theme parks.

Notably, it may also explain some of the reasoning behind Netflix’s planned price hikes. After all, it has to pay for these new locations somehow, especially since it’s apparently rolling it out as a glorified marketing campaign to promote its shows rather than “as a meaningful source of revenue.”

We’ve seen how much fans love to immerse themselves in the world of our movies and TV shows, and we’ve been thinking a lot about how we take that to the next level.

Josh Simon, Netflix VP of Consumer Products

Netflix House may also be an initiative to help curry favor with film and TV producers, who have previously complained that it doesn’t market its original shows nearly as much as they feel it should.

Simon told Bloomberg that while the Netflix House locations will be permanent, what’s inside will rotate based on whatever is popular on the streaming service at the time — and undoubtedly whatever it wants to promote. This will include ticketed shows and restaurants featuring foods from its unscripted cooking shows that will range from casual fast-food to formal dining and even desserts and cocktails.

Final decisions have yet to be made on where the first two Netflix House locations will open or what shows will be featured at launch. Since most of Netflix’s pop-up experiences have been in major cities like New York and L.A., it’s a safe bet that those two are on the radar, with Las Vegas as another likely possibility.