• by Karlene Lukovitz , October 13, 2023

Netflix, which just ended its physical DVD distribution business, is planning to launch a brick-and-mortar retail chain.

Netflix already operates an ecommerce shop, and has occasionally opened pop-up stores, including one at Los Angeles’s The Grove last holiday season. But Netflix House would mark its first foray into permanent retail locations.

The entertainment-focused stores, dubbed Netflix House, will offer merchandise based on Netflix shows and movies, restaurants featuring items from Netflix’s food-based reality shows, live experiences, and rotating art installations based on shows.

The first two stores — featuring “Squid Game” obstacle courses — will open sometime in 2025 in the U.S., in locations not revealed by Netflix.

The company did say that it also plans to open stores outside the U.S. at some time in the future.

Netflix, which is raising subscription prices and pushing to build its nascent advertising business to drive new revenue, said that its customers love to immerse themselves in the world of its movies and TV shows. “We’ve been thinking a lot about how we take that to the next level,” Josh Simon, Netflix’s vice president of consumers products, told Bloomberg.