What causes a grocery store to be considered “cool”? For Erewhon, it’s not just the $18 smoothies or its Instagram-able aesthetic—it’s the way this upscale natural foods market has redefined the meaning of health and wellness. 

Erewhon started as a small grocery store by Michio and Aveline Kushi in Boston, 1966. The store’s quirky name – an anagram of ‘nowhere’ – comes from Samuel Butler’s 1872 satirical novel. The original location did not achieve its intended success. Still, its 2011 attempt in California grew into what we know it as now – ten luxury grocery stores with an annual revenue of $150 million. The private equity firm, the Stripes Group, owns a minority stake, and the chain is now expanding to every upscale neighbourhood in Los Angeles. 

Health-focused high-end food chains are nothing new for America. In the 1990s, Mrs. Gooch’s set the stage by blending organic foods, vitality, and luxury into the grocery shopping experience. While innovative for its time, Mrs. Gooch’s was forced into obscurity by Whole Foods, which later lost its status-symbol allure under Amazon’s ownership. Into this void stepped Erewhon, redefining health as apriority and a lifestyle statement.

Though Erewhon’s prominence as a healthy, lifestyle-focused grocery store contributed to its success, its widespread popularity has been due to its unavoidable social media presence. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram have seen “guess the price” videos featuring Erewhon’s carrot sticks or sourdough bread, priced higher than a full meal elsewhere. There are the influencer hauls, with common themes such as ‘trying $200 worth of Erewhon smoothies’ or ‘testing out the priciest products’, and each video racks up thousands and millions of views.

Erewhon has also moved beyond influencers and tapped into celebrity culture. Some of its most popular products are the result of collaborations with famous names such as Sabrina Carpenter and Hailey Bieber. The grocery store is known to be frequented by individuals such as Megan Fox, Kylie Jenner, and Shawn Mendes, which has cemented its reputation as a supermarket for the high class.

As said by Harmony Holiday in her LA Times article When did food become such a luxury: “The new way to indicate class is to shop Erewhon with no regard for cost and bypass the genetically modified, aggressively low-quality gut-busting food the U.S. is now renowned for.”

Some consumers flock to Erewhon’s $20 pre-made meal shelves to post photos of their smoothies on their social media for likes and comments or relate to their favourite celebrities. Buying from this store allows you to feel part of the “in-crowd” and the elite community that gets to live the healthy, high-class lifestyle that Erewhon promotes. It’s no wonder that even a $52 Erewhon-branded tote bag has become a coveted symbol of this exclusive, wellness-driven identity.