Oculus Rift demos are coming to select Best Buys May 7th, with a ‘small number’ available for purchase

Elvis Costello once famously said that writing about music was like “dancing about architecture” — or maybe it was Martin Mull or Laurie Anderson or Frank Zappa, but that’s beside the point really.

Reporting on VR carries a similar caveat. You just really have to try to get it. Retail is likely to be a large part of the technology’s outreach, and there’s no better place to start, really, than that haven of blue polo shirted electronic goodness, Best Buy.

Select locations will be getting a demo-able version of the Oculus Rift come May 7th, courtesy of the store’s Intel Experience display. “Select” is really the key word here. In fact, a mere 48 locations will be getting the headset to start.

Oculus Rift Consumer Edition

Best Buy is also offering up “a small number” of Rifts for sale that same day, so get your shoving elbows ready, as the numbers are “extremely limited” while Oculus works to fulfill pre-orders of the long-awaited headsets.

Those not ready to plunk down the cash just yet can schedule a demo through Oculus’ Live tool, which will locate a participating store nearby. More spots will be getting their Rift demos later this summer.