# Let Erewhon Be Erewhon

> A former bougie-grocery devotee on how specialty shops traded curiosity for $32 ice and seed-oil paranoia.
- Title: Let Erewhon Be Erewhon · Eater | Shortify
- Summary: A former bougie-grocery devotee on how specialty shops traded curiosity for $32 ice and seed-oil paranoia. The fancy grocery store stopped being about loving…
- Keywords: grocery stores, erewhon, food culture, luxury, wellness, food, culture, Let, Eater
- Source: Eater — https://eater.com/food-culture/981913/fancy-luxury-grocery-stores-have-gone-too-far-erewhon
- Author: Bettina Makalintal
- Published: 2026-08-26T13:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: grocery stores, erewhon, food culture, luxury, wellness, food, culture
## 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?
## Key takeaway

The fancy grocery store stopped being about loving food and started being about optimizing, performing, and pricing other people out.