Erewhon’s Secrets

It’s 9:30 a.m. on a Wednesday in Pasadena, and it ought to be a sleepy morning on South Lake, there beside the Macy’s and T.J.Maxx and Ross Dress for Less and various other retail establishments one might reasonably have thought had gone bankrupt, but more than 300 people have swarmed the sidewalk and many have been milling for hours. They were drawn here by the promise of what passes, at Erewhon, for a deal: the secular privilege of spending $200 on groceries to receive, in turn, a tote bag full of on-brand Erewhon goods (dragon-fruit–rose pick-me-up beauty water, two kinds of avocado oil, beekeeper’s immune spray), alongside the immeasurable spiritual privilege of being among the first inside the tenth location of America’s buzziest grocery store.