The concept for Omega Mart first originated in 2009, when artists first created a DIY pop-up grocery store exhibit which, according to the
Las Vegas Review-Journal, was essentially "little more than cinder-block shelves with bottles of colored water". Both original installations were temporary, with the second one opening on July 8, 2012, and closing September 20 of that year. In January 2018, Meow Wolf announced they would launch their second permanent attraction (the first being Santa Fe's
House of Eternal Return) in
Las Vegas, which would be an anchor tenant of retail and entertainment complex AREA15. Omega Mart was originally planned to launch in 2020, but its launch was delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, Meow Wolf announced the project would focus on a supermarket called Omega Mart, and was expected to open in January 2021. and it opened on February 18, 2021. Various commercials for Omega Mart have been released, and have been noted for their unusualness and surrealism. A commercial for its opening, which featured
Willie Nelson's face
deepfaked onto another person's body, was described by Shelby Stewart of the
Houston Chronicle as giving Texans "an idea of what a grocery store ad on LSD might be like". Various later commercials were described by Reid McCarter of
The A.V. Club as having a "weird '90s" aesthetic, and by
Rob Beschizza, writing for
Boing Boing, as perfect examples of a certain "darkly humorous, haunted cosmic consumer horror". In June 2025, Omega Mart was featured in Season 2, Episode 1 of the PBS series
Human Footprint. Omega Mart was also featured in videos that aired on the
Food Theory YouTube channel in August and November 2021, one of which featured Matpat and his wife Stephanie Cordato visiting the installation. == See also ==