The tables outside Erewhon in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, are crowded with beautiful young people dressed in athleisure. Inside the swanky store there are long queues at the smoothie and salad bars. The grocery aisles are Instagram-ready: carrots carefully lined up; bananas suspended in orderly bunches; nuts stored in chic mason jars. The beauty section glitters with pricey supplements and vegan protein powders. "Erewhon is somewhere I want to be seen," confesses Paul, a 27-year-old customer. "It says: I have taste."

洛杉矶银湖区埃雷霍恩超市外的桌边，挤满了身着运动休闲装的俊男靓女。 店内，在思慕雪和沙拉吧台前，人们排起了长队。 杂货区的货架堪称“网红风”：胡萝卜整齐排列；香蕉成串有序悬挂；坚果装在时尚的梅森罐中。 美容区陈列着价格高昂的补充剂和纯素蛋白粉。 “埃雷霍恩是我想被看到的地方，”27岁的顾客保罗坦言， “它代表着：我有品味。”

In the past few years Erewhon, a micro-chain of ten stores around LA, has emerged as the grocer of choice for celebrities from Hailey Bieber to the Kardashians. Social media is flooded with posts about its products, which include chicken-noodle soup ($16.50), a strawberry smoothie ($21) and sea-moss gel ($44). The retailer has benefited from a shift in luxury spending away from big-ticket items such as handbags towards smaller indulgences. But much of its success is down to canny strategy.

过去几年间，在洛杉矶拥有十家门店的埃雷霍恩连锁超市， 已成为海莉·比伯和卡戴珊家族等名人的首选杂货店。 社交媒体上充斥着对其产品的各种推荐，包括鸡肉面汤（16.50美元）、 草莓思慕雪（21美元）和海藻凝胶（44美元）。 这家零售商受益于奢侈品消费从手袋等高价商品向小奢享受的转变。 但其成功在很大程度上归功于精明的策略。

Erewhon has humble roots. It was founded in the 1960s in Boston by a Japanese couple who were devotees of the "macrobiotic" movement, which encourages followers to eat the simplest foods. Its name, nowhere backwards, comes from a utopian novel by Samuel Butler. Bill Tara, who worked there in the late 1960s, recalls a "food museum" run by hippy volunteers. Shelves were stocked with products including whole grains and miso, with labels that explained "what it was, who grew it and who blessed it on the full moon", Mr Tara chuckles.

埃雷霍恩的起源颇为朴素。 20世纪60年代，一对信奉“宏观生物饮食法”（该饮食法鼓励人们食用最简单的食物） 的日本夫妇在波士顿创立了这家超市。 其店名“Erewhon”是“nowhere”的倒写，源自塞缪尔·巴特勒的乌托邦小说。 20世纪60年代末曾在该店工作的比尔·塔拉回忆说，那是一家由嬉皮士志愿者经营的“食物博物馆”。 货架上摆满了全谷物和味噌等产品，标签上还写着“这是什么、 谁种的、谁在满月时为它祈福”，塔拉先生笑着说道。

A vibe shift came when Tony and Josephine Antoci, a Californian couple, bought Erewhon in 2011. By then the Boston shop had closed and the retailer had a single LA outpost. They hiked prices and set about remaking Erewhon as a luxury grocer.

2011年，加利福尼亚州的一对夫妇托尼·安托奇和约瑟芬·安托奇收购了埃雷霍恩。 当时，波士顿的门店已关闭，该零售商在洛杉矶仅剩一家门店。 他们提高了价格，并着手将埃雷霍恩打造成一家高端杂货店。

That has taken more than photogenic produce and clever social media. Erewhon has been carefully cultivating a sense of exclusivity. Its membership programme—which offers discounts and free smoothies for a fee of $200 per year—is a status symbol akin to joining a private members' club. Popular products are available only for limited periods. Erewhon plans to add another six stores over the next two years but remain confined to LA. Shoppers elsewhere in America can pay to have its goods delivered. But many choose to journey in person. "It's, like, the main reason I came," says Grace, visiting the Silver Lake store from New York.

要实现这一目标，光靠美观的农产品和巧妙的社交媒体营销可不够。 埃雷霍恩一直在精心营造一种稀缺感。 其会员计划——每年缴纳200美元会费即可享受折扣和免费思慕雪——已成为一种类似加入私人俱乐部的身份象征。 热门产品仅限售一段时间。 埃雷霍恩计划在未来两年内再开设六家门店，但仍将局限于洛杉矶。 美国其他地区的消费者可以付费让该超市送货上门， 但许多人仍选择亲自前往。 “这……是我来这儿的主要原因，”从纽约来到银湖门店的格蕾丝说道。

Erewhon has also been clever in how it has tapped into the "wellness" craze. Many youngsters these days follow diets that baffle their parents—keto, paleo, flexitarian. As inflation has pushed up grocery bills, splurging on healthy food has also become a way to signal affluence. Erewhon's shelves, heavy with strange-sounding ingredients, meet the moment. But the retailer, which under its new owners has shaken off its earlier macrobiotic dogma, has avoided the puritanism that sinks many health-food shops. Take its popular buffalo cauliflower bites, which are made from organic ingredients but are covered in rice flour and fried.

埃雷霍恩在利用“健康养生”潮流方面也十分精明。 如今，许多年轻人遵循的饮食方式让他们的父母感到困惑——生酮饮食、原始人饮食法、弹性素食主义。 随着通货膨胀推高食品杂货账单，在健康食品上挥霍也成了彰显富裕的一种方式。 埃雷霍恩的货架上摆满了听起来很奇特的食材，正好迎合了当下的需求。 不过，这家零售商在新老板的带领下，已摆脱了早期的宏观生物饮食法教条， 避免了许多健康食品店因过于严苛而衰败的命运。 以其受欢迎的有机水牛花椰菜块为例，它虽由有机食材制成，但裹着米粉并经过油炸。

At the same time, the posh grocer has recognised the growing demand for convenience. Data from NielsenIQ, a research firm, show Gen Z and Millennial Americans are more likely than older generations to eat on the go and less likely to plan dinners. Erewhon is designed for the quick, frequent shopping trips they prefer. The average store is about 12,000 square feet, roughly one-third as big as a full-size Whole Foods, another grocer for affluent urbanites. Erewhon doesn't disclose what share of revenue comes from its drinks counter and salad bar, but Kabir Jain, an executive at the company, says it is far higher than for conventional grocers; to him, Erewhon is part grocer, part cafe.

与此同时，这家高端杂货店也认识到了人们对便利性的日益增长的需求。 研究公司尼尔森IQ的数据显示， 美国Z世代和千禧一代比年长一代更倾向于在外就餐，也更少提前计划晚餐。 埃雷霍恩的设计正是为了满足他们偏爱的快速、频繁的购物需求。 该超市的平均面积约为1.2万平方英尺，大约是另一家面向富裕城市居民的杂货店全食超市的三分之一。 埃雷霍恩未透露其饮品柜台和沙拉吧台的收入占比，但公司高管卡比尔·贾因表示， 这一比例远高于传统杂货店；在他看来，埃雷霍恩既是杂货店，也是咖啡馆。

Where to from here? Erewhon's unhurried expansion may only partly be by choice. There aren't many neighbourhoods with a large cohort of young people willing to queue for exorbitantly priced produce. Mr Jain thinks there are only four or five cities in America where opening a branch makes sense. High-end fashion labels, suffering from sluggish sales following a period of rapid post-pandemic expansion, should take note. Luxury, by definition, is not for the many, but the few.

埃雷霍恩的未来会如何？ 其缓慢的扩张步伐或许部分是出于选择。 愿意为高价农产品排队的年轻人聚集的社区并不多。 贾因先生认为，美国只有四五个城市适合开设门店。 高端时尚品牌在经历疫情后快速扩张、随后销售低迷的时期后，应注意到这一点。 毕竟，奢侈品，顾名思义，不是面向大众，而是面向少数人的。

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