She used to love this

Specialty groceries were a joy, not a target. Corny graphic design, small-batch products, lovingly ugly Comic Sans labels on shelves at chef-beloved markets.

“"Bougie grocery store" was a phrase I said with love and not an ounce of judgment.”

Eataly as a mood fix

She went when bored, hunting an obscure cheese or a jar of something she had never seen jarred. Even buying nothing shook her out of the doldrums.

“I loved the curiosity these shelves inspired; they felt like capsules of the world.”

A shelf of another self

An unfamiliar ingredient promised a version of her that was more learned, more cultured, more artistic, all without leaving town.

Then came the disdain

Now she walks into fancy groceries and feels something closer to disgust. The category has never been bigger or easier to find.

Ripoff Erewhons everywhere

Earnest specialty shops got replaced by sleek, streamlined, moneyed clones selling premade food and precut vegetables at gasp-inducing prices.

“Their shelves are a tasteslopped barrage of buzzword-y products like "microplastic-free salt" and tallow-fried tortilla chips.”

Fear replaced curiosity

The old stores had cheesemongers evangelizing washed-rinds that smelled like feet. The new ones sell anxiety dressed up as pantry goods.

“Fancy grocery stores have become a nexus for laundering conservative ideology under the compelling guise of pantry goods that are nice to look at.”

Sourcing as subtraction

What matters now is what a product lacks, like seed oils, not whether any farmer or local economy benefits. A small farm's value is that it might sell raw milk.

Seventeen dollar sprouts

A handful of Brussels sprouts, cut and bagged for you, costs $17. Food becomes optimization, status, or set dressing for a Day in My Life video.

“They feel like one-stop shops for orthorexia.”

Money without taste

The flex is the product: $32 ice, $45-per-pound tuna salad, $250 celebrity honey from Will Ferrell's garden. That microplastic-free salt comes in plastic packaging.

Whole Paycheck got cheap

As luxury grocers multiplied, Amazon-owned Whole Foods became the cheapest everyday option in several categories in New York, right as many Americans cut back on groceries.

“as though people with ample means needed a more exclusive option as a result of Whole Foods having become "too accessible."”

Understand the lure, resist it

She has stood transfixed by $12 water and decided a $21 Hailey Bieber smoothie beats a cocktail. The problem is not Erewhon, it is everywhere copying it.

“Let Erewhon be Erewhon. Can't everywhere else just be normal?”