The most beloved cult grocer in LA

November 7, 2023 5:19 AM

Aveline and Michio were not businesspeople; they were ideologues. They taught that their diet could cure basically any malady, cancer in particular.

(slTheCut)

posted by Kitteh (52 comments total)

Under capitalism every counterculture movement winds up, in its own way, in an "$18 Hailey Bieber Strawberry Glaze skin smoothie" state of being. Reading this was like reading a history of Yorkville, which I work across the street from and is filled with wealthy old people wearing pajamas, futuristic wraparound sunglasses and carrying bags with slogans like "GIVE A DAMN" printed on them.

> Aveline and Michio were not businesspeople; they were ideologues. They taught that their diet could cure basically any malady, cancer in particular....By 1981, just before the Kushis began claiming the macrobiotic diet was a cure for AIDS...

There is functionally no difference between this nonsense and the snake oil advertisements in 19th century newspapers we have in the archive where I work, one of which I remember claimed to cure "ALL DISEASES."

> Some of the workers were so unbalanced, they unionized. “We were deeply shocked,” writes Aveline in her memoir. “The essence of our teachings is gratitude of nature and respect for other people … the union was concerned with taking, not giving.”

Uh huh.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:55 AM on November 7, 2023 [31 favorites]

I like this part, from early on:

Erewhon is a deadly earnest place. And yet. “The one thing I’ve done today,” said StraightioLab podcast host George Civeris upon landing in L.A., “is gone to Erewhon as a bit to get a $13 smoothie.” Erewhon does not participate in, but will knowingly profit from, the bit.

The thing about these GOOP-adjacent woo slingers is that, even if you're "just" engaging with them as a scornful/sarcastic bit on your own YT channel or podcast, you're still engaging with them; your money is just as green as any true believers, and if you're buying the notorious GOOP jade egg just to goof on it, they've got your $66. It's like the old Bill Hicks routine where he's ranting about marketers, and then imitates a marketer responding to him about how well he's exemplifying the anti-marketing market.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:57 AM on November 7, 2023 [11 favorites]

Whenever anyone in my local community forum suggests we need a new supermarket (which is ridiculous we have 5 within a small 2 mile long area, 6 if you count a small but quite good Mexican Market) amongst the chorus of "we need a Trader Joes" I like to suggest it clearly has to either be a Erewhon OR a Piggly Wiggly.......just to confuse everyone how I roll.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 6:58 AM on November 7, 2023 [5 favorites]

Ridiculous. The grocery store that should be a cult chain is HEB.
posted by orrnyereg at 7:01 AM on November 7, 2023 [21 favorites]

The Card Cheat already picked up on certain passages that raised my blood pressure. In fact, this article seems like it was scientifically designed to have every kind of person I dislike: influencers, self-styled health gurus, trend-hoppers, grifters, and well-intentioned but harmful ideologues. The heart is a yin organ, right? So I should eat some yang fruits?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:05 AM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

In posting this FPP, I learned Erewhon exists. I had never heard of them before and I don't consider myself very sheltered.
posted by Kitteh at 7:08 AM on November 7, 2023 [6 favorites]

I was no prepeared for the length of this piece this morning, but I enjoyed the long read despite having never engaged with the social media aspect of Erewehon.

I did visit the store near LACMA/ the Grove once is 2010 and got the vibes that this was a store for folks with eating disorders, not start from the family farm freshness Also I think I paid $10 for a small pack of rye crackers.

I am a long time member and shopper of various co-op groceries, but LA natural foods people really do hold up to stereotypes.

I want some one to do a write up of Berkeley Bowl vs Erewhon. Maybe someone is already TikToking It?
posted by CostcoCultist at 7:14 AM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

> So I should eat some yang fruits?

Statistically, no matter what you eat if you live in the United States you're going to live about as long as the two principals in this story did, which is to say 72 or 78. Of course if you're less fortunate you could pass away at the age of 41, as their oldest child did, an early death her own mother blamed - in print - on her "extreme diet," which included salmon, "very rarely eggs and a little sugar on social occasions."
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:15 AM on November 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Does HEB still sell Dr. B's? Because the B stands for Butt. I would love to see an article on "What's In the $3 Two Liter Bottle of Dr. Butt".
posted by phooky at 7:19 AM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Out of all of that, the reveal at the end was the most surprising to me, the company that the son started. Did not see that coming.
posted by Snowflake at 7:38 AM on November 7, 2023 [5 favorites]

Erewhon OR a Piggly Wiggly..

I’m in the Erewhon. I’m in the Piggly Wiggly. I’m in the combination Erewhon-Piggly Wiggly.
posted by zamboni at 7:42 AM on November 7, 2023 [23 favorites]

At least this was written by someone who actually lives in LA and goes to the real stores. I’m so tired of reporting by text.
posted by Ideefixe at 8:15 AM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I’m in the Erewhon. I’m in the Piggly Wiggly. I’m in the combination Erewhon-Piggly Wiggly.

Erewiggly
posted by Thorzdad at 8:19 AM on November 7, 2023 [8 favorites]

Pigglywhon
posted by chavenet at 8:22 AM on November 7, 2023 [7 favorites]

Glowingly PiggyWhere
posted by orrnyereg at 8:26 AM on November 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Wiggly was I ere I saw Piggly.
posted by y2karl at 8:46 AM on November 7, 2023 [19 favorites]

We just had one of these open up in town (taking over a long dead Borders book in the old "fancy" shopping district. Two things struck me: the lines - unsurprising for something new and the cost - holy crap, people really aren't joking with just how eye wateringly expensive everything is.
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:57 AM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

filled with wealthy old people wearing pajamas, futuristic wraparound sunglasses and carrying bags with slogans like "GIVE A DAMN" printed on them.

The accuracy of this is so stunning I have to put on my own wraparound sunglasses. May spray pain this on every grocery store in the greater SF Bay Area.
posted by latkes at 9:10 AM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

Y'all, I poked around on the Erewhon website and I really really can't grok paying $18+ for a smoothie. I mean, if any of you have had Erewhon smoothie, please tell me what it was like. Or maybe if you can afford $18 smoothies, you may not be on MeFi anyway.
posted by Kitteh at 9:40 AM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

I had a sip of one before. It tasted like a smoothie packed with moral certainty and superiority.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:21 AM on November 7, 2023 [15 favorites]

Metafilter: packed with moral certainty and superiority
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:24 AM on November 7, 2023 [20 favorites]

Worked at a place in Phila. that subscribed to the same philosophy and saw Michio as a role model. I thought it was a cool alterna hippie grocery/cafe until I got on the wrong side of management. I'm all for folks going macrobiotic, for some it seems to help with their health problems. It's not for me though. Fuck those people.
posted by evilDoug at 10:54 AM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Lily Kushi, the couple’s first child, died at 41 of cervical cancer. “She avoided eating many foods that weren’t good for her, but not completely,” Michio wrote in his ninth book, The Cancer Prevention Diet. “She especially liked salmon … She never ate meat, very rarely eggs, and ate a little sugar on social occasions. She developed cervical cancer from indulging primarily in this extreme diet. Salmon is a red-meat fish and extremely yangizing. Her cancer appeared in the cervix, a very yang, constricted organ.” Aveline died, also of cervical cancer, at the age of 78. “She loved fried kombu, the strongest sea vegetable,” wrote Michio, “and she enjoyed deep-fried sourdough bread. Baking and deep-frying are each very yang and in combination are extremely tight-ening. The end result over time was cervical cancer, a very yang tumor.” “I think because my father in particular really emphasized this macro and cancer-prevention diet book and everything,” his second-oldest son, Lawrence, told me, “there was this sort of shame or guilt attached to people developing cancer.”

Utterly disgusting. Their own children die from cancer and the parents blame them for it. This is why I utterly despise "woo" bullshit like this and am always shocked when MetaFilter shows support for it. All of it needs to be stamped out: macriobiotic diets, astrology, tarot, "psychics", crystals, all of it.
posted by star gentle uterus at 11:13 AM on November 7, 2023 [34 favorites]

Erewhon spelled backwards is profit.
posted by fairmettle at 11:30 AM on November 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm confused; who in this thread is supporting Erewhon?? As far as I can tell, we are taking the piss out of them.
posted by Kitteh at 11:33 AM on November 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

(I think the criticism is that at any time past, present, or future, someone on Metafilter might have engaged in an unapproved woo.)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:40 AM on November 7, 2023 [10 favorites]

Pretty sure the pearls are being clutched merely because we are discussing this topic at all. It's well known that even mentioning something means you have taken up full-throated support for that thing. This is why book bannings are so effective.
posted by hippybear at 11:45 AM on November 7, 2023

Recently, I stood in line behind two women, both gingerly touching the facial-compression garments holding in their cheeks.

What?? I want to search for what this means but I'm afraid I'll just find bondage gear
posted by Is It Over Yet? at 11:52 AM on November 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Erewhon spelled backwards is profit.

I believe Butler is on record somewhere acknowledging that he chose an anagram of 'nowhere' to allude to and as homage to More's Utopia, but I can’t guarantee it.
posted by jamjam at 11:56 AM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Is It Over Yet?, I think it might have something to do with plastic surgery? It sounds like it to me.
posted by Kitteh at 12:06 PM on November 7, 2023

So the Erewhon that is selling $18 Hailey Beiber smoothies isn't really the same Erewhon that the Kushis started and ran is it? The article mentions a bankruptcy in 1981 and that the current owner bought the one remaining store in 2011 but doesn't say who they bought it from.

I remember reading a book on the Macrobiotic Diet when I was in university that was written by Michio Kushi. Some of the points in it seemed solid (eating seasonal and local foods) but it really seemed like he wanted everyone to eat like a Japanese person but not stuff like tempura or sushi which is what I like best. Thinking about it now it makes sense that my friend gave it to me to read because his mother had died of cancer a couple of years earlier and his family had probably tried the Macrobiotic Diet when her conventional treatments weren't working. As far as I can tell he never took to that diet himself, quite the opposite.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:07 PM on November 7, 2023

I recommend the Robert Christgau article linked in the story. It's heartbreaking.
posted by orrnyereg at 1:49 PM on November 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Mod note: One comment removed for using sexist language ("pearl clutching").
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 3:25 PM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

A friend of mine got into macrobiotics in 1969. It was all brown rice, seaweed, and sea salt. Then people started coming down with scurvy. My friend quit. I had no idea this nonsense was still going on until I read TFA.
posted by CCBC at 3:47 PM on November 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

So what is it morally acceptable to die from then? Or do I just lie down peacefully and disappear like Yoda (minus the coughing).
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:53 PM on November 7, 2023

Mod note: Several comments removed. Please avoid derailing the thread by commenting on mod decisions. Instead, there's MetaTalk or the Contact Us form at the bottom of every page.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 4:15 PM on November 7, 2023

Fuk I loved this article. As evidenced I like nothing more than experimenting on myself with supplements of dubious efficacy (SoDE) but I also read the article while eating twizzlers and pirate booty. I want nothing more but to marinate in seaweed gel and inhale the dust of mushrooms watered by the compassionate tears of my friends and grief of my enemies. Thank you for posting !!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 4:16 PM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Embarrassingly enough, the first time I heard of the macrobiotic diet was from a profile about Kirk Cameron in the teenage magazine Bop when I was a kid.
posted by Kitteh at 4:20 PM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

[ One comment removed for using sexist language ("pearl clutching").]

If we are splitting hairs on a hill building mole's ass, maybe.
posted by y2karl at 4:40 PM on November 7, 2023 [10 favorites]

I'm with St. Peepsburg in that I love this stuff. Is not a fancy grocery experience one of the blessings of living in the modern age?? There is so much absurdity and waste, but also so much abundance and delight. It's not irresponsible to enjoy frivolous things every once in a while.

Sure, I can't "afford" an $18 smoothie in the "fiscal responsibility" sense, but if I've got $18 in my pocket and a desire to get a little treat, you bet I'm heading to the fancy grocery store to sniff soaps and tinctures or whatever.
posted by knotty knots at 4:56 PM on November 7, 2023 [7 favorites]

Kitteh, if it helps, my "first time I heard of the macrobiotic diet" story involves Dirk Benedict ["Face" from the A-Team] and a checkout aisle tabloid
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:15 PM on November 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Mod note: After several folks emailed, the original comment has been restored. My bad on misreading the intent of a flag, carry on!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 6:01 PM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

posted by CostcoCultist

omg omg my first "eponysterical" - do I get a patch or a mug or a tote bag or something?
posted by queensissy at 6:06 PM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

Pretty sure the pearls are being clutched merely because we are discussing this topic at all. It's well known that even mentioning something means you have taken up full-throated support for that thing. This is why book bannings are so effective.

It's also how you get both Beetlejuice and Voldemort.
posted by Literaryhero at 7:22 PM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I mean, I took the

am always shocked when MetaFilter shows support for it

To be at least in part to one ask and I think a couple of posts that have dived into the modern astrology thing, is it misogynist or excessively atheist to despise it, etc.
posted by Audreynachrome at 1:33 AM on November 8, 2023

The thing about these GOOP-adjacent woo slingers is that, even if you're "just" engaging with them as a scornful/sarcastic bit on your own YT channel or podcast, you're still engaging with them; your money is just as green as any true believers, and if you're buying the notorious GOOP jade egg just to goof on it, they've got your $66. It's like the old Bill Hicks routine where he's ranting about marketers, and then imitates a marketer responding to him about how well he's exemplifying the anti-marketing market.

A lot of podcasts do fall into this trap, but Straightiolab is an honest examination of straight culture. They've even had straight guests on the show.
posted by zymil at 1:41 AM on November 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

I saw Alex Krycek there in flip-flops the night he was murdered. Also, I'd like to tell you about what was good about doing business on the supplier side.
posted by The Half Language Plant at 7:02 AM on November 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

I faintly remember Erewhon being a surprisingly expensive coffee stand in a bookstore on Newbury Street in the 1980s. Like, the most expensive coffee stand teenage me had ever seen. I guess I'm misremembering? Maybe the coffee stand was upstairs and the Erewhon was in the basement? Which bookstore was this, anyway?
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:04 AM on November 8, 2023

The corpse in the library: Would it have been at the Trident?
posted by pxe2000 at 7:15 AM on November 8, 2023

Oh, I think that's it! Thank you.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:22 AM on November 8, 2023

how well he's exemplifying the anti-marketing market.

A lot of podcasts do fall into this trap

Hicks: the righteous indignation dollar, that's a big dollar [cw: suicide jokes]
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:36 AM on November 8, 2023

I'm going to email this one to my 86-year-old father.

He has lived in northern New England (mostly Maine) for the last 54 years, was an avid organic gardener -- including hops for his own beer -- and remembers Erewhon from its "selling soybeans and sunflower seeds from bulk barrels in Cambridge" days.

His head is going to frigging explode.
posted by virago at 10:05 AM on November 8, 2023 [1 favorite]