New York City gained another influencer-run, highbrow grocery store last month, akin to Los Angeles’ infamous Erewhon grocery store. Meadow Lane, which is clearly meant to be a status symbol, debuted last month in a tucked-away hole-in-the-wall storefront in Tribeca. Though nothing really surprises any of the long-time New York locals anymore, the disdain for these overpriced stores is apparent. This is because luxury grocery stores serve one function, and that is to take advantage of people.
City influencers’ influence is strong in elite and elite-wannabe circles in the wealthier neighborhoods in Manhattan, evident from the numerous videos “West Village Girls” make with direct inspiration from NYC influencers. Why are luxury grocery stores popping up in areas like Greenwich Village, Tribeca, and West Hollywood? Well, if influencers don’t live there, aspiring ones with their parents’ AMEXes do.
Unnecessarily making a need as basic as food luxurious isn’t a new phenomenon, but influencer culture takes this to new heights. Let’s dive into how this is going, and why it should be stopped.
The Problem With New Luxury
New York City, whether anyone likes it or not, has always been the landing ground for “transplants.” Your mom’s mom might’ve taken a boat from Europe to Ellis Island, or maybe your punk rock great aunt moved the family here in the late ‘80s. What’s changed? New-money families and nepotism babies decided to flock to one of the greatest cities in the world in the early aughts, and the snowball effect took shape. As a local myself, I know that many native New Yorkers take no issue with folks from outside the Big Apple relocating to start a new life for themselves, so long as they contribute to the community and don’t try to turn it into their old college town. Influencer culture, especially as it manifests on platforms such as TikTok, has shifted the needle in a direction that turns old neighborhoods previously reserved for creatives like Andy Warhol and Jimi Hendrix, such as the West Village, into a new space to open a private equity-backed, overpriced coffee shop (I’m looking at you, Blank Street).
This is all to say that the opening of the Meadow Lane “gourmet market” is not surprising nor new for New York City. Even still, as one of the most expensive cities in the world, you anticipate that you’ll walk down Park Avenue and pass a Chanel, a Gucci, and a Louis Vuitton in the same stride. Even old-school “highbrow” markets like Citarella and Zabars bother many New Yorkers in the average tax bracket, but the stores’ long-standing existence in their specific niche is already incorporated into the DNA of the city. What we don’t expect is a random TikTok influencer to open up their own grocery market. That is, unless their family was number 136 on Forbes’ richest families list.
Meadow Lane and Brokeback Contessa
Sammy Nussdorf, a billionaire heir and known also as “Brokeback Contessa” on TikTok, soft-launched Meadow Lane last month after several years of meditating on and preparing to execute the idea. Nussdorf is a member of a New York family whose wealth derives from “beauty product distribution” and began in the early 1960s. You don’t necessarily consider this “old-money” wealth, but it is clearly many moons away from the average New Yorker’s salary.
Even with all of the money Nussdorf likely makes from TikTok on top of his existing wealth, it’s clear that no amount of preparation could have saved Meadow Lane’s first opening days. Why? He doesn’t realize that groceries aren’t merely a trendy business endeavor; you have people’s lives in your hands.
In Meadow Lane’s first days, there were at least two instances of major health violations involving their prepared foods.
Not only were their gluten-free chicken nuggets raw on the inside, but staff mislabeled and withheld nutrition information and allergens from certain food labels on their turkey chili.
If you’re going to enter a market that’s riddled with safety codes while also charging an arm and a leg for an eight-piece of chicken nuggets, at least make sure you’re doing it the right way. Nussdorf has since come out and apologized for the mistakes made in those first few days, but first impressions stick… Or do they?
Social Media’s Obsession with Luxury in Every Form
Before there was Meadow Lane, there was Happier Grocer in Soho. Before Happier Grocer, there was Erewhon in California. I could have gone my entire life not knowing that these storefronts existed, had it not been for TikTok and the striking grip they have on many users trying to live the luxury life. You know what they say, “Fake it ‘til you make it.”
Aside from affluent influencers like Alix Earle and Hailey Bieber setting the tone for what kinds of people shop at Erewhon and other similar markets, pricey grocery stores are a class symbol. Why go shopping at Trader Joe’s for a gallon of organic milk for cheap when you can go to Erewhon and spend five times as much, and then post about it online? To be clear, folks who do not fall under the “I can make $10k on one TikTok post” category aren’t the issue in this case, and honestly, neither are the influencers who can afford it. Who’s to blame, then? Well, you know the answer, and it’s a U.S. economic structural issue.
There’s no ethical consumption under our current economic structure, and businesses like Erewhon and other markets in the “luxury” space that actively hike up grocery prices and the cost of living in the neighborhoods that these storefronts reside in are the problem. The commodification of food has existed since the beginning of the free market, but luxury grocers are taking it to a new, more expensive level. Specifically in New York City, the affordability crisis has been the main voter issue in the recent mayoral cycle.
Even still, all of these stores continue to have loyal customers, raw chicken nuggets or not, because of what they represent (and who is moving to these places). I’d be a fool if I didn’t acknowledge that, of course, neighborhoods like West Hollywood in California and Tribeca on my own home turf haven’t been considered “affordable” in a couple of decades. But, how do we know when these luxury grocery stores are going to take over more affordable neighborhoods like Bushwick or Crown Heights? How will fairly priced mom-and-pop grocers, who actually care about the community and if everyone gets fed, compete when these luxury stores are hiking up the cost of commercial rent?
Who knows how long it’ll take, though? Maybe we’ll all become affluent influencers by then and purchase $20 Hailey Bieber smoothies just because we can… Or, these gourmet grocers will soon be exposed for what they are, and your mom-and-pop shop will live on for generations to come, feeding the community one bacon-egg-and-cheese at a time.
