How Erewhon made luxury grocery store shopping a lifestyle

Health coach Gregg Miele — @greggyhustle to his almost 20,000 Instagram followers — is a creature of behavior: Every single day, he hits the gymnasium and he goes to Erewhon.

On the upscale natural grocer, he would possibly purchase a cup of in a single day oats (“one of the best”), replenish his stash of nutritional vitamins (“their complement sport’s unbelievable”) or seize a $12.49 bottle of his favourite Ophora water (“they implement an oxygen element to it — whenever you open it, you begin seeing the bubbles”), which he was cradling like a soccer on the chain’s new Studio Metropolis location on a current morning.

“It’s a Michelin-star customary for a grocery retailer, what I imply?” Miele, 44, stated. “I inform all my purchasers: There’s no reducing corners together with your well being.”

Grocery purchasing isn’t sometimes a day by day exercise, however Miele isn’t an anomaly amongst Erewhon’s extraordinarily devoted and spendy buyer base.

Vogue referred to as the chain a “health-food holy site,” the New York Occasions stated it’s “the unofficial hangout for the younger, stunning and bored” and Self-importance Honest declared: “The hottest pandemic club in Los Angeles is Erewhon.” On this newspaper, a columnist stated Erewhon is “the Entire Meals for individuals who suppose Whole Foods is a dump.”

It’s a cultural phenomenon (and occasional spectacle) that clients, critics and business analysts joke may solely exist in L.A. Firm executives, within the midst of an bold growth plan to carry Erewhon shops exterior Los Angeles County for the primary time in a long time, to as many as 20 areas in all, hope that’s not the case.

Earlier than it grew to become the land of $21 superfood smoothies, mushroom tinctures and organic-raw-vegan-sugar-free-gluten-free key lime pie, Erewhon had dwindled to a single retailer on Beverly Boulevard, cluttered and wholly unremarkable in a metropolis not precisely hurting for well being meals grocers.

It was 2011 and the eating-clean way of life had but to go mainstream — even in Los Angeles — and Entire Meals was the default cease for the well-off, wellness-minded set. Erewhon, should you knew tips on how to pronounce it (it’s air-uh-wahn), was simply that run-down nook grocery within the shadow of the Grove.

Tony Antoci, then 43 and searching for one thing to interrupt the monotony of early retirement, purchased it anyway along with his spouse, Josephine. The couple figured they might add one other location or two if issues went nicely.

One decade and 6 extra shops later, Erewhon has morphed into one thing far past profitable regional grocer. It’s additionally a restaurant, celeb scene, vacationer vacation spot, date-night spot, post-workout hangout, selfie backdrop, vendor of $150 branded merch sweatpants and compulsory cease on the way in which to or from Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (“off the aircraft and straight to the motherland @erewhonmarket,” self-described “micro micro influencer” Anna Nassery captioned a current Instagram Story).

The scene exterior the brand new Erewhon in Studio Metropolis. Catering to an upscale clientele, the high-end grocer has grow to be a magnet for influencers and celebrities in search of pure meals and holistic treatments.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Occasions)

“I by no means envisioned seven shops and what it’s was. No. No method,” Antoci, Erewhon’s chief government, stated in between sips of a Regenerada smoothie from the Studio Metropolis retailer’s bustling tonic bar. (Among the many dozen components: chocho protein powder, reishi, chaga, mesquite, maca, natural bananas, natural almond butter and natural maple syrup.) “I used to be doing it simply to maintain busy; I didn’t have a passion.”

Till now, the privately held firm has caught to a predictable slow-growth method: smaller-format shops of about 10,000 to 16,000 sq. toes (the typical Entire Meals is about 40,000 sq. toes) positioned in prosperous, aspirational communities not too removed from its headquarters simply south of the Arts District. Along with the Beverly Boulevard retailer and the Studio Metropolis outpost, which opened final month within the high-end Retailers at Sportsmen’s Lodge, there are Erewhons in Silver Lake, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Venice and Calabasas.

A 2019 funding by New York personal fairness and enterprise capital agency Stripes, which has additionally invested in Seamless and Blue Apron, helped ramp up the tempo.

A Beverly Hills Erewhon is subsequent, with a scheduled launch date of summer season 2022, after which Culver Metropolis later within the 12 months; Pasadena is within the works for 2023.

After that: presumably downtown L.A. and Glendale, after which a wider Southern California growth — Newport Seaside, Laguna Seaside and Santa Barbara are excessive on the listing, although no leases have been signed — earlier than transferring as much as the San Francisco Bay Space and, though it’s an extended shot, perhaps even to Manhattan, one thing followers have been pushing for in earnest.

“We’re taking a look at New York Metropolis; it’s positively on the plate,” Antoci stated as he made his well past a vibrant rainbow-hued show of Erewhon immunity pictures and cold-pressed juices. (Printed on the bottles: “Let juice be thy drugs and drugs be thy juice.”) “However we’ve got our palms so full in our personal yard. It’s troublesome sufficient proper right here — think about what it could be on one other coast.”

Antoci, who ran a meals distribution firm earlier than Erewhon, stated he’s making an attempt to keep away from what occurred to Entire Meals, which has seen its model identification and cachet undergo after Amazon.com purchased the upscale grocery chain 4 years in the past for $13.7 billion.

Austin, Texas-based Entire Meals has since grow to be extra deals- and convenience-focused, a spot the place you should purchase 10-for-$11 Greek yogurt cups whereas dropping off your Amazon return for that air fryer you impulse-bought. And business knowledge through the pandemic confirmed a steeper drop in store traffic and smaller total income beneficial properties in contrast with opponents. Entire Meals didn’t reply to a request for remark.

“My largest concern is what they’ve executed,” Antoci stated. “I’d by no means in one million years wish to promote to Amazon. As a result of I imply, Amazon’s Amazon, they’ll at all times be there. However we’re distinctive. We will’t be on that street map — that’s what makes us particular — or we’re going to be similar to them.”

Erewhon declined to launch income and revenue figures, however Antoci stated same-store gross sales rose 15% to 16% final 12 months — according to total grocery business numbers — in contrast with annual will increase within the low double-digits earlier than the pandemic. The Beverly Boulevard retailer is the highest performer, producing 5 occasions the income it was pulling in when the Antocis purchased it.

About 40% of the corporate’s income comes from its private-label gadgets and ready meals (vegan buffalo cauliflower, salmon and breakfast burritos are among the many favorites on the in style sizzling bar). Its bestselling product is water, adopted by coconut water, in distinction to main grocery store chains the place soda and milk are generally the highest gadgets.

With its fashionable shops and spacious patios, meticulous merchandise curation and emphasis on rising manufacturers, Erewhon has elevated an earthly errand into an elite occasion. A lot of what clients discover on retailer cabinets replicate the tastes of Josephine Antoci, the corporate’s trendsetting president, who personally samples or assessments each potential product earlier than choosing those that make it into the coveted Erewhon fold.

Laura Lopez, 23, cuddles her canine, Louie, whereas purchasing on the Studio Metropolis Erewhon. Lopez says she has visited the shop each day because it opened in November.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Occasions)

The grocery enterprise can be notoriously troublesome. Shoppers have many choices, and the place one chooses to buy is commonly decided by distance, comfort and worth. Grocers face even higher stress now given supply-chain backlogs and steep inflation on prime of traditionally low margins, stated Chris Graff, co-chief funding officer of RMB Capital.

Essentially the most profitable shops are “a vacation spot — locations you possibly can go to for extra than simply milk and eggs,” he stated. “It’s a really high-risk surroundings to broaden in.”

He added a caveat: “Except you’re a premium model.”

Erewhon didn’t begin out as a luxurious grocer. It was based in 1966 by Japanese immigrants Michio and Aveline Kushi — pioneers of the pure meals macrobiotic motion — who started promoting imported natural items out of their Boston house.

Norio Kushi, one of many couple’s 5 kids, recalled packaging brown rice, miso, soy sauce and umeboshi within the household’s basement as an 11-year-old earlier than the operation was shut down by the well being division. Undeterred, his mother and father rented a small storefront close by and named it Erewhon, an anagram of “nowhere.”

Erewhon grew to a few shops and a distribution facility on the East Coast, and in 1969, the corporate opened a location in L.A. just a few doorways down from its present Beverly Boulevard deal with. The shops modified house owners a number of occasions over time, and finally the East Coast facet of the enterprise was folded into one other grocery chain after a interval of economic and administration struggles.

Immediately Erewhon, with its paleo bagels and ox bile tablets and 20-somethings in cropped sweatshirts over skintight bike shorts posing in entrance of the kombucha wall, is under no circumstances what his mom envisioned greater than half a century in the past, however “she would get a kick out of it,” stated Kushi, 66, a truck driver who lives in Asheville, N.C. “I really like that it’s nonetheless round.”

Erewhon Chief Government Tony Antoci purchased the pure meals grocer along with his spouse, Josephine, when the corporate had only one retailer. A decade and 6 extra areas later, they’re within the midst of an growth push.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Occasions)

Moreover the publicity from celeb lovers — the Kardashians, Angelina Jolie, Miley Cyrus and Shawn Mendes amongst them — Erewhon has additionally profited from widening curiosity in wholesome residing and consuming lately.

“Again then it was hippity dippity,” stated Jason Widener, a former actor who was working behind the tonic bar on the Beverly Boulevard retailer when Antoci purchased it. He’s now an Erewhon vice chairman and its No. 1 hype man, showing in lots of the model’s Instagram movies to tout its newest merchandise, together with new smoothie recipes he concocted himself.

“Folks now notice that it’s cool to be wholesome,” he stated. “It’s not cool for me to be sitting right here smoking a cigarette with you, what I imply? Like, even after I ask individuals to exit and drink a beer, it doesn’t really feel cool anymore. What feels cool is me going, ‘Hey man, let’s go on a sundown hike. I’m going to carry this cool tea with me from Erewhon. We’re gonna get excessive off the good things!’”

Giant grocery store chains, big-box retailers reminiscent of Goal and Walmart, and even greenback shops started to catch on to the ethos, making extra room on their cabinets for merchandise that may enchantment to buyers who all of a sudden needed bone broth and gluten-free bread — and intensifying the competitors for these {dollars}, stated Scott Mushkin, a longtime grocery researcher and chief government of R5 Capital.

The pandemic, he stated, “turbocharged the healthy-eating development” by drawing much more consideration to the significance of bodily and psychological wellness.

As demand for pure meals and holistic treatments has elevated during the last 12 months and a half, “we’ve benefited,” Antoci stated of Erewhon. All of its shops are worthwhile, he stated.

When the primary shutdown went into impact, Erewhon put its complete stock on-line in a matter of days and started providing native supply, assured inside 90 minutes, and curbside pickup, strikes that he stated helped it get out in entrance of rivals at an important time.

One problem for Erewhon, significantly because it strikes into new markets, will probably be persuading individuals unfamiliar with the model that it isn’t out of attain. A spokeswoman acknowledged that public notion of the model has an “air of pretentiousness round it,” and Widener admitted that “to some individuals, it won’t really feel approachable.”

“I keep in mind when James Gandolfini was purchasing at Erewhon,” he stated, “and I may inform he wasn’t snug at first.”

Antoci has vowed to maintain Erewhon’s ambitions in verify as the corporate widens and quickens its new-store rollout: “It’s not going to be 100” areas, he stated. “We’ve bought to maintain it true to what it’s.”

Diehard followers like health coach Miele, nevertheless, would like to see it go a lot additional.

“I really like the model,” he stated. “Hit the world with it.”