Erewhon (store)

Erewhon is an American upscale grocery chain with 11 locations, all in the Greater Los Angeles area.[4][5][6]

History

Erewhon was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1966 by Michio and Aveline Kushi.[1][7][8][9] The name "Erewhon" is derived from the 1872 satirical novel Erewhon by Samuel Butler.[4] In the novel, Erewhon, an anagram of "nowhere," is a utopia in which individuals are responsible for their own health and prosecuted for the crime of being unhealthy.

The Erewhon Organic brand was originally a health foods producer with a single store in Boston. The Kushis moved to Los Angeles and opened Erewhon's oldest operating location, in the Fairfax District, in 1969. In 1979, the brand was purchased from bankruptcy by employee Tom DeSilva.[10] In 2011, Tony and Josephine Antoci purchased the Fairfax District store from the widow of Tom DeSilva.[11][12][13] The Antocis created and developed the brand into an upscale supermarket.[14]

Following several years of increasing financial performance, New York–based private equity firm Stripes Group purchased a substantial minority stake in Erewhon in 2019.[14] In June 2021, Erewhon became a certified B Corporation.[15]

With eleven locations in Los Angeles County,[2] the brand has been compared to the early years of Whole Foods Market.[16]

As of 2023, Erewhon ships nationwide to all 50 states, and also ships to Australia, Canada, and the UK.[17]

In 2024, Erewhon filed an environmental lawsuit to block the construction of a mixed-use development which would include 520 apartments (78 of which were subsidized affordable housing), ground floor retail and restaurants on the lot of the vacant Sportsmen's Lodge hotel near its Studio City location.[18]

Locations

• Fairfax District (opened 1969)[2]
• Calabasas (opened 2014)[2]
• Venice (opened 2016)[2][19]
• Santa Monica (opened 2018)[2]
• Pacific Palisades (opened 2019)[2]
• Silver Lake (opened 2020)[2]
• Studio City (opened 2021)[2]
• Beverly Hills (opened 2022)[20]
• Culver City (opened 2023)[21][22]
• Pasadena (opened 2023)[23][24]
• Manhattan Beach (opened 2025)[25]

See also

• Bristol Farms
• Gelson's
• Erewhon Organic

External links