In partnership with Tracksuit. Data provided by Tracksuit; interview and analysis led independently by THE GOODS.
TL;DR: Erewhon Is Monetising Aspiration—Not Groceries
In this instalment of The Ritual of Retail, THE GOODS goes inside Erewhon’s $20 smoothie economy and its data-driven growth engine. The LA-based grocery chain isn’t scaling through traditional advertising or discounts—it’s engineering cultural capital at retail scale.
LOS ANGELES—Long before Los Angeles became a global capital of wellness culture, it was El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles. Today, some might say it’s Erewhon country. The nearly 60-year-old upscale grocery chain, known for its focus on organic, sustainable, and health-conscious goods, has become a status symbol.
In certain circles, dietary choices are less about nutrition and more about identity. In Los Angeles, wellness shopping can resemble a competitive sport.
According to Tracksuit, a real-time brand health tracking platform, Erewhon is growing faster than the wellness category it belongs to.
In a category that’s grown from 43% to 50% penetration in under a year, Erewhon is outpacing even the category's momentum. Over half of Erewhon’s awareness is now driven by 18–34-year-olds, compared to just 32% for the category overall.
It’s not advertising that’s behind the surge. Erewhon has become a generational brand by way of cultural pull. At the intersection of American wellness, data-driven retail, and aspirational living, it’s selling aspiration.
Yes, it sells $20 smoothies. But it also sells aesthetic, status, and a version of identity that doesn’t need to announce itself. Step into any Erewhon—Pasadena, Calabasas, or the flagship on Beverly—and you feel it immediately: this isn’t just a place to buy groceries.
The produce is staged. The lighting flatters. Conversations hover somewhere between functional medicine and funding rounds. Outside: luxury sports cars. Inside: content creators and customers fresh from Dr. Diamond’s chair. The $20 Hailey Bieber smoothie moves faster than most IPOs.
A decade ago, you might have thought "Erewhon" referenced Samuel Butler’s 1872 satire—a utopia where dysfunction masquerades as logic. Today, it’s still utopian, only now it’s edible, photogenic, and adaptogen-forward.
Erewhon sells a sense of place: somewhere between a wellness retreat, a concept store, and the soft launch of a city that hasn’t been built yet. This is retail as identity architecture, where the product is part of the performance.
Behind the polished aisles is a rigorously built system — family-owned, intentionally paced, and engineered with an unusually high degree of control. It’s a model Tracksuit says is not just culturally relevant but commercially potent.
Supporting the business through data is Sean Pool, Head of Data & Analytics. A former Apple and Paramount strategist now orchestrating one of the more novel data practices in the category.
This instalment of The Ritual of Retail examines how Erewhon is engineering a new model for modern grocery through tightly controlled SKU selection, proprietary systems, and a refusal to scale in ways that dilute cultural capital.
From Calabasas to Cloud Infrastructure
"I think in systems," says Pool. "Always have." Raised by aerospace engineers and educated in finance, he started at Apple and Paramount before finding a uniquely fulfilling home at Erewhon.
But his real training ground? Modded Minecraft.
"You’d start with coal, then gas generators, solar panels, build storage. Eventually you automate everything. That carried with me. It was about creating the machine and raising the floor so you can automate the boring stuff and spend time on what matters."
At Erewhon, that logic runs through every layer: from labour and inventory to ecommerce and membership data.
"We’re not just running dashboards," Pool explains. "Our team, led by Chief Growth Officer Kabir Jain, has built our own customer-facing digital experience. Our own membership program. Our own lifecycle marketing engine. Even our own shipping business to complement the local ecosystem. Everything’s integrated."
This infrastructure is brand strategy. It enables cost control, agility, and a level of intentionality rare in grocery retail.
"Most chains are optimising for logistics and cost-cutting due to razor-thin margins. We’re optimising for experience."
Data as Brand Tool, Not Just Back Office
Among considerers—those who say they’d shop Erewhon—51% associate the brand with ‘innovation,’ per Tracksuit. That’s nearly on par with Trader Joe’s and Amazon Fresh. It's a notably higher benchmark than the 36% seen among the broader brand-aware group, and it signals deep differentiation where it matters: at the point of intent.
But unlike its tech-driven competitors, Erewhon uses innovation not to lower costs, but to refine experience. Its systems exist not to commodify, but to elevate.
"People think data kills the magic," says Pool. "But done right, it helps you build the magic." He’s integrated Braze for behaviour-based lifecycle marketing, built a proprietary data platform serving as the central brain for the business, and uses AI to automate aspects of marketing.
The result: a scalable engine able to create value from the gold mine of available business data.
"It’s not just automation, it’s creating IP. You’re turning work into systems. And that’s where brands can start to own their tech, not rent it."
Pricing Power, by Design
"Ask someone about Erewhon and the first thing they’ll say is: 'It’s so expensive.' But the second, more revealing comment follows closely behind: 'It’s worth it.'"
According to data from Tracksuit, consumer descriptors cluster around a specific lexicon: premium, high-end, excellent, fancy, exclusive - and yes, overpriced.
For some brand leaders, those labels are criticism. For Erewhon, they’re confirmation. The brand isn’t trying to be accessible. It’s curating elevation.
At a time when consumers are pushing back against overhyped products and influencer fatigue, Erewhon has managed to remain resonant. Why? It doesn’t rely on mass persuasion. It knows its audience and speaks their language.
Built to Be Exact, Not Universal
According to March 2025 data from Tracksuit, Erewhon ranks lowest in its category for three attributes: "Is a brand for people like me," "Is value for money," and "Is a brand I trust."
Yet the brand continues to grow.
While overall patronage remains steady, claimed preference among 18–34s and women has surged. Erewhon is not trying to be for everyone, it’s succeeding by being exact.
Retail as a Lifestyle Showroom
Think of Erewhon less as a grocer and more as a lifestyle showroom. The design borrows from boutique hotels and high-design cafés. Minimalist wood tones, ambient lighting, curated playlists.
"In grocery, everyone’s racing to reduce food costs. We’re doing the opposite," says Pool. "We’re adding more cost into the product—and charging a premium. Because the customer can feel the difference."
Erewhon’s produce is first pick. Everything is organic. Everything is staged to look beautiful. That’s not a bonus; it’s core to the experience.
Tracksuit found that from May 2024 to March 2025, Erewhon’s brand awareness rose from 9% to 13%. Over half that awareness comes from consumers aged 18–34, compared to a 32% category average. Awareness skews female and high-income.
Descriptors blend aspiration and critique: premium, boujee, natural, expensive, cool. Erewhon embraces the dichotomy. "In every industry, there’s a customer who doesn’t care about price—they want the best. That’s who we serve," says Pool.
The Product Is the Marketing
Erewhon is a product-first brand. The experience carries the message. The store, the smoothie, the tote—they all sell the story.
"We need people to understand we’re not just a grocery store. It’s something you buy into," says Alec Antoci, Erewhon COO.
At the core of the brand are five drivers:
- Value: Symbolic, not just nutritional.
- Use: Seamless integration into wellness rituals.
- Aesthetics: Designed for the camera and the cart.
- Narrative: A mythos rooted in purity and status.
- Fandom: Customers who evangelize.
This is how Erewhon became a brand people identify with, not just consume.
Erewhon’s Data Discipline
"Most brands staff up data teams too early," Pool warns. "You need to first build a system that works. Prove value with a small setup. Then scale."
He calls it "platform thinking", building a system others can use without reinventing the wheel.
"You don’t need a team of 30. You need a platform. Then you can bring in people, or AI agents."
Pool’s advice: start with product, clarify the story, measure impact.
How Erewhon Builds a Data-Led, Experience-Driven Growth Machine
Search is shifting. "People aren’t Googling like before. They’re asking AI. That changes how you rank, how you’re discovered."
Erewhon is adapting. Metadata, schema, and SEO are all built dynamically. They’re also experimenting with graph databases to map customer-product relationships.
"That’s the future of segmentation. Not just who bought what, but who’s connected to what."
From a health food store in 1960s Boston to a cultural flashpoint in LA, Erewhon is now retail theatre. Its aisles double as a cultural lounge: where biohackers, wellness founders, and soft-launched creatives wait patiently for their ritual dose of relevance.
Here’s what brand leaders should take away: the right systems don’t replace soul, they protect it.
When the product, the place, and the person align around shared value, the store becomes a stage.
Erewhon isn’t just capturing spend. It’s monetising identity in a way that most retailers still don’t understand. Erewhon’s greatest innovation, anchored on data, may be proving that in the long run, pricing power comes not from ubiquity, but from intentional exclusion.
This article is part of THE GOODS’ “Ritual of Retail” series—a look inside the world's most culturally resonant retail experiences.
Data provided by Tracksuit, March 2025.
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