Erewhon, the luxury supermarket chain that turned grocery shopping into a hyper-trendy Los Angeles lifestyle, is ramping up its pace of expansion. The company will move into three new cities in 2025: Manhattan Beach, West Hollywood and Glendale. It’s the most store openings in a single year since owners Tony and Josephine Antoci bought Erewhon in 2011, a sign of the organic grocer’s soaring popularity. And after relocating its central kitchen to a much larger industrial space last month, the company says it has the capacity to grow even more around Southern California. “We see 2025 as the beginning of Erewhon 2.0 — a wave of expansion for us,” said Tony, who is chief executive.
Expansion Plans
The Manhattan Beach store will be Erewhon’s first in the South Bay and is scheduled to open in March in a former Mother’s Market & Kitchen at 1700 Rosecrans Ave. After that, the West Hollywood store is set to debut over the summer at 8550 Santa Monica Blvd. in a space that was previously a Sprouts. The Glendale store is expected to open toward the end of the year at the site of the old Virgil’s Hardware Home Center at 520 N. Glendale Ave.
Central Kitchen Upgrade
To support the addition of three new locations, the company recently completed a three-year buildout of a new central kitchen in Vernon, which at 65,000 square feet is five times larger than its previous one in Boyle Heights. Known as the commissary, the kitchen is where all of Erewhon’s TikTok-famous hot bar and tonic bar menu items are prepped before being delivered to its grocery stores around 5 every morning.
Business Growth
Erewhon reportedly pulls in $1,800 to $2,500 in sales per square foot; the industry average is $500 per square foot. As Erewhon has increased its footprint around Los Angeles County, it has expanded and relocated its commissary every few years to keep up. Roughly 350 of Erewhon’s 2,500 employees work out of the new 110,000-square-foot Vernon building.
History and Culture
Erewhon was founded in 1966 by Japanese immigrants Michio and Aveline Kushi and has evolved over the years to become a premium grocer with a cult following among A-list stars and social media influencers. The company has expanded beyond groceries to include private-label products, apparel, and a membership program.
