CHARLESTON — A cult-favorite grocery store in Los Angeles frequented by celebrities like Sabrina Carpenter, Jake Gyllenhaal and Hailey Bieber is “coming soon” to the Holy City.
Or at least that is what Erewhon’s original caption on a Sept. 30 Instagram post led hundreds of thousands of its followers to think. “A taste of Erewhon in your city. Coming soon,” the post read under a map of the Charleston peninsula — one city in a carousel of several major metros like Boston, Miami and Dallas.
The news was greeted with wild enthusiasm from fans and future shoppers around the country, including “Charleston!!!!!!!!!!!!” and “omg NYC let’s gooo.” But it was just as quickly followed by the sounds of hearts breaking coast to coast when Erewhon updated the post later in the day to say, “A Taste of Erewhon Shipping to Your City. Coming soon.”
The tiny edit was picked up by the likes of outlets such as Parade and Yahoo! News, as well as more than 200,000 engaged commenters.
“I love how everyone ignored the part where it says shipping to your city not opening in your city,” one person posted on Instagram alongside a laughing emoji.
“They edited to SHIPPING,” another responded with a sobbing emoji.
For many first stumbling upon the name — or even how to pronounce it — you’re not the only ones. Many a YouTube video explain it’s “AIR-eh-hwon.”
Beyond its obscure reference to Samuel Butler’s 1872 satirical novel, Erewhon, Los Angeles’s trendiest health food store offers high-end, expensive, often celebrity-endorsed products like organic smoothies and strictly sourced health supplements.
In a May profile, Vogue Business described it as “more than just a grocery store — it’s a status symbol.”
There are 14 locations around California today despite the luxury grocer’s humble origins in Massachusetts.
In the 1960s, Aveline and Michio Kushi opened a small natural foods market in Boston, “inspired by their belief that what we eat shapes who we are,” they explain on Erewhon’s website. The store then relocated to Los Angeles, morphing into the cult favorite it is today.
Erewhon now has viral videos with games like “Guess the price” and influencers unpacking their elaborate hauls.
Soon though, you’ll be able to ship Kourtney Kardashian’s Lemme supplements, a $65 Manhattan Beach candle or $50 mason jar of beef bone broth, made from filtered water, to your front door. Whether Hailey Bieber’s $20 smoothie, which Erewhon reportedly sells 40,000 of each month, will last in transit is still in question.
The company confirmed with a second post Oct. 1 that shipping to South Carolina would begin Oct. 3.