sepavone/Depositphotos.com
In some cities, a new wave of gourmet grocers are drawing long lines, viral TikTok attention -- and shoppers willing to pay premium prices for prepared foods, wellness products, and an elevated retail experience.
The pioneer of the trend is Erewhon, the Southern California organic grocery chain that’s been called out for it $20 smoothies, $26 bottles of “hyper-oxygenated” water, and Instagram-ready displays. On the other hand, it's also become a hot spot for celebrities and influencers, as it's elevated healthy food to a status symbol.
“Erewhon smoothies feel like the equivalent of buying Chanel sunglasses when you can’t afford main line,” a Berlin shopper tells Vogue Business.
“Erewhon is somewhere I want to be seen,” a 27-year-old customer confessed to The Economist. “It says: I have taste.”
One Erewhon investor told the Financial Times of the concept, “It’s like a cross between Whole Foods and Studio 54 [the former New York celebrity disco].”
Erewhon’s slogan is, “We’re more than a grocery store. We’re a community.”
@erewhonmarket That’s a wrap for our first Wellness Event of 2024! Thanks to everyone who joined us last weekend – we can’t wait to come together again soon.
♬ original sound - Erewhon
Several Factors Moving Gourmet Grocers Into the Spotlight
Roula Khalaf, the editor of the Financial Times, cited Bayley & Sage and Daylesford Organic as two U.K. grocers also benefiting, and traced three factors driving the trend. The first is the increasing popularity of vegan and macrobiotic foods. She writes: “The more traceable and healthier the products, the less likely shoppers are to question how much they are asked to pay.”
Other reasons include such grocers investing in prime real estate that’s at the “heart of a community,” and achieving “fame out of proportion to their size” that helps inflame social media hype. Khalaf added: “Young Londoners on TikTok know about Erewhon and have opinions on its celebrity smoothies, even if they have never been near LA. Expensive foods and exotic liquid concoctions are fodder for memes and jokes. The more costly and absurd a grocery sounds, the more of a cult it can become.”
Recently, a number of articles have explored the opening of several pricey grocers in downtown Manhattan -- Meadow Lane, Happier Grocery and Rigor Hill Market -- to crowds and social media buzz, despite an affordability crisis that led to a surprise win for its new mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
“Gen Zers and millennials are swimming in student debt and may never own homes, but they’re splurging on gut-healthy juices and rotisserie chickens,” the Wall Street Journal recently wrote of the luxury grocery trend hitting New York City.
New York is full of high-end grocery stores, including Zabar’s and Eataly, but the new crop of gourmet grocers stands out for their focus on building followings via social media and in-store experiences, akin to creating a lifestyle brand.
Meadow Lane opened last November in Tribeca after owner Sammy Nussdorf spent 17 months documenting every step in its creation on TikTok. He told WSJ of the store, “I wanted people to feel like they just took a Xanax when they walk in.”
He adds that he doesn’t feel Meadow Lane’s prices, including $15 chicken nuggets and $65 olive oil, are out of line with upscale grocery.
Happier Grocery, located in SoHo, also has a podcast. It has created an event space hosting tastings, yoga, knitting workshops, and other experiences as part of efforts to build a community around the store.
“You have to buy food,” Dawson Stellberger, co-owner of Happier Grocery, told the New York Times. “How do you reimagine what that experience looks like and then allow other kinds of activities or programs to come alongside that as well, to make it even more of a rich experience?”