Welcome! You are now a trainee at Omega Mart and a part of the Dram Corp family. Once you walk into the doors of Meow Wolf's Omega Mart, you're handed your employee identification card, so you can start your training as soon as possible.
You might get so caught up in looking at everything in this grocery store (all available for purchase) that you forget you have a job to do here, but make time for both training - you have to learn the correct cone color for spills, after all - and exploring, because it's all amazing.
Take your employee ID card and use it on these Omega Mart "boop" stations where you will learn more about the store and your job and some will quiz you one what you've learned, like that aforementioned color-coded cone system for spills.
You should never try to clean up a difficult spill on your own. Instead, just put out an ecru cone (or 4). Someone with appropriate training will come by in a hazmat suit to take care of that for you.
If you've read my previous posts, then you know that Omega Mart is much more than a grocery store and place to learn about unreal color systems. It's an interactive museum from the minds of the Meow Wolf Company. This is their second of three museums like this that all have different themes, and an underlying mystery.
Almost all of the mystery takes place behind the wall of the grocery store, and you can get there several ways, one of which is in the floral department and another is through the tent in the recreation center. In fact, Omega Mart, as a grocery store, is just a portion of this museum. At least 2/3 of it are in different rooms and on entirely different floors.
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Musical fruit is the best! |
Before heading to the rest of the museum, we spent a lot of time in the produce department, just scoping out the incredible fruits and veggies, like these musical mangos and tomatoes. You'll also find the infinity melon, cucumber ducks, daikon friends, dioramas housing adorable root people, mitosis oranges, and cabbage slippers. You may have thought of some weird things, but the folks of Omega Mart may have out-creatived you.
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Really wished loose happles were in stock when I visited |
Ever wish apples were more interesting? Well, at Omega Mart they are travel mugs or happy. Apples are the coolest. I adored these happles. Aside from the angry bell peppers, they were my favorites.
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Taking my job in the deli department really seriously |
There's almost no area that's off-limits in Omega Mart. In fact, I came from the back and ended up behind the deli counter, so I tried to help a few people out with finding what they were looking for (ha!).
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Can I interest you in some red, white, or blue steaks or monument meat? |
In fact, the deli counter is a place you'll want to stop and take in for a while. Everything is amazing and unique and cool and morbid.
Omega Mart really has their branding down. The floral department has this great flower logo, and also has gorgeous - and interesting - flowers you can buy. When you duck behind this wall, an employee will remind you that the flowers are always watching, because the hallway is lined with all different kinds of flowers with eyes to look at you. If you're into weird stuff like I am, this is hilarious. It's unconventional and performance art all rolled into one.
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I also tried my hand at being a janitor |
If you see a door that can be opened anywhere (that's not being guarded by an actual employee) then you should try opening it. The janitor's closet holds way more than you expect and you may not find your way back out. See how the door looks like the sign is glitched? That's on purpose. And when I emerged, looking for Eric to follow me, someone welcomed the new janitor to the store.
See that doorway to the right covered in plastic? That's how I ended up behind the deli counter. And see those things on the shelves on the left? Those are all bags you can buy. Who doesn't need a crossbody stomach satchel or a whole ham backpack?
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Why is this employee frozen? Why is this always happening?!? |
When you go behind the scenes at Omega Mart, you learn the true story of how it came to be, the dark secrets it holds, and how it became the #1 grocery store in the world. You'll spend some time in the employee offices and the break room, plus you'll figure out how to solve the mystery of the parent company and be asked to join the resistance. I'll share more pictures from that later, or you can check out my pics from my visit on my Instagram.
I told everyone that I had been waiting for 3 years for Omega Mart to open and planned a whole trip around it. I wasn't disappointed either. We spent probably 4 hours there and could have spent more, but I was starving. Despite being surrounded by food, there wasn't anything to actually eat in the store, nor were you allowed to due to Covid.
I'm looking forward to visiting their other locations, including House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe, NM and Convergence Station in Denver, CO. Until then, you can learn more about Meow Wolf and their installations on their website. I purposely didn't look at any walk-throughs on YouTube in order to be surprised by what the story of Omega Mart was. Even if you get their emails, you still have almost no idea what's happening. Their ads all say "Omega Mart. You have no idea what's in store for you." and they're absolutely right.
Have you been to any great interactive museums?