The original Erewhon was a tiny 10′ by 20′ basement stall on Newbury Street. Today, it has no East Coast outposts, but serves the top 1% of the West Coast, considered one of the most luxurious grocers in the nation, which has gone viral for its $20+ smoothies, $88 sea moss gel and $30 water bottles.
Despite no stores on the East Coast, Erewhon was founded by a Japanese couple in Boston in 1966. Erewhon became America’s first natural food store, a trailblazing initiative at a time when the food industry was shifting away from whole foods and toward convenience and packaged goods lacking nutritional value.
Erewhon’s early days
Erewhon was founded by a Japanese couple who immigrated to the United States to study in 1949. Michio and Aveline married in 1954 and moved to Boston. Both were advocates of natural foods, and found a shift in the food industry from that. They founded Erewhon, then called Erewhon Natural Foods, and opened it on Newbury Street in Boston.
The market’s name came from one of the Kushi’s favorite books, Erewhon, an 1872 satirical novel by Samuel Butler. The novel is about a utopia where individuals are responsible for their own health but prosecuted for the being ill.
The Kushi’s then decided to move Erewhon west, opening their first and longest standing store in 1969 at 7660 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. They sold the business in 1983. Right now, Erewhon has 10 California locations with four more coming soon.
About Aveline and Michio Kushi
Aveline and Michio were a Japanese husband and wife duo, educators, strong proponents of the macrobiotic diet, and the founders of Erewhon. They married in 1954 and opened their natural grocer in 1966. Together, they published over 70 books on health and wellness. The Kushi’s spent some time in Los Angeles before they came back to Brookline, where they founded and ran The Kushi Institute to teach macrobiotics in 1978. The institute moved to The Berkshires town of Becket, Massachusetts from 1985 until closing permanently in 2017.
Will Erewhon ever return to its roots and open a Boston location? Who knowns. Until then, you can shop a select assortment of Erewhon exclusives and curated goods with their nationwide delivery.