A bottle of sea moss gel “from the purest waters of St. Lucia” for $40, a pound of Buffalo cauliflower for $19, or a package of organic spaghetti for $10, not forgetting the famous smoothie healthy in collaboration with Hailey Bieber for 18. Here are some products that can be found in Erehonthe most expensive supermarket in the world, where, according to Forbes, The purchase can cost from 50 to 100 dollars. further than usual.

Its narrow aisles with high shelves full of amazing prices and products create a kind of health paradise where all sorts of celebrities flock. Erewhon is not just a store, it is a space halfway between trade and worship.a brand that found Los Angeles the best place to spread its “religion.”

At that moment in history when, for the first time, more than 1% of the world’s population became millionaires, Exclusivity is becoming a growing boon. So much so that it has even become a requirement for a significant portion of the other 99% who aspire to take a place among their select group.

And the key to ensuring that a supermarket that proudly positions itself as the most expensive in the world reaches such a high level of popularity lies precisely in your ability to enter the world influential person. Well, it’s no longer enough to admire famous people, now everyone wants to dress and groom like them, eat like them, and even shop where they do. Thanks to the current trend that combines influence and exclusivity, something as everyday as going to the supermarket can become an experience that can turn necessity into luxury.

Erewhon: from specialization to exclusivity

From the very beginning, everything was wrong, the idea for creating Erewhon was born in the 60s in New York, when a couple of Japanese immigrants, Michio and Aveline Kushi, They started with what they called “macrobiotic education”. A type of diet based on the principle of balance of Yin and Yang and representing an adaptation of the culinary traditions of the Far East, where food, medicine and even spirituality are understood as one. Macrobiotic philosophy based George Osawa It includes commandments such as eating foods that are handled as little as possible, based on the environment in which one lives and taking into account each season.

To bring these principles to the United States, the Kushis founded Erewhon Organic, intending to make it a food company, especially grains. Based on the title of the novel of the same name Samuel Butler, one of Osawa’s favorite books. Understood as a satirical work on Victorian society, Erewhon imagined a utopian country where criminals were treated as sick and the sick were considered criminals. Place nowhere(Nowhere in English), where machine progress was synonymous with danger.

However, the people responsible for the store’s survival to this day are not Kushi, but Tony Antoci, who is neither a hippie nor a guru peddling “ancient Japanese wisdom,” he is simply a businessman who has already made a fortune from giving away food. In 2011, he and his wife Josephine bought the only remaining Erewhon location, a specialty store for health fanatics on Beverly Boulevard.

From there came a concept that evolved over the years and shaped what Erewhon is today, with a single store in Los Angeles. capable of billing a million dollars a week.

To achieve this, this particular “super for the rich” has managed to position itself on social media through a promotion full of celebrities. Hailey Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Aniston or Miley Cyrus They are part of the clientele that has become another attraction that has made this brand a success story.

But it’s not easy marketing, is a reflection of the Californian lifestyle, where you can be both a hippie and a classic, a strange combination of sophistication and naturalness that creates a favorable environment for the idea of ​​a leisurely and healthy life, which should be understood as the end of luxury in capital letters. . It is not for nothing that by identifying himself with these concepts, Erewhon was able to 35% increase in sales last year, despite its reputation as “the world’s most expensive supermarket”.

Collaboration and the leap into high fashion

Besides its exclusivity and protection of organic production, the most sought after in Erewhon are its Instagrammable smoothie, who have managed to stand out through collaborations with a variety of personalities and luxury brands. This is a case of what they did to the design firm, Cactus flea marketand co-creation of psychedelicSmoothie CPFM’.

Since the model Hailey Bieber announced “his secret” that not a day goes by that he doesn’t come to the store for one of his smoothie healthythousands of people decided to follow suit, buying an $18 smoothie and trying their luck in case they ran into a famous person.

Since the $18 drink relaunched in 2022 Erehon almost sold quarter million smoothie from Hailey Bieber. Fascination with what other celebrities such as Kourt Kardashian with your smoothie Poosh Detox Potionor Bella Hadid with his version of Erewhon Kinsicle. Even Emma Chamberlain Partners with Supermarket for Chamberlain Coffee Launch smoothie limited edition.

But the ambitions of the food industry revolutionaries don’t end there: the company has also made the leap into fashion by creating its own Clothing brand with limited edition Erewhon collections.

However, a big event happened leap to high fashioncollaborating with Balenciaga to release a collaboration that includes bags for 350 euros, T-shirts for 595 and aprons for 490. In fact, they were the protagonists of their latest fashion show in the residential and elegant Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Eccentric Demna Gvasaliathe house’s artistic director was the one who chose this collaboration, which of course includes one of his famous smoothies, only this one, paired with Balenciaga’s sleek black, was made from charcoal.