The shelf stars of LA and the $33 Hailey Bieber smoothie.

Five days, five food stores.

Jul 20, 2025

Just over a month ago I returned home from an intense five-day eating research trip to Los Angeles, California.

My ultimate food tourism activity in a new country is scouring the local supermarket. Whether that be the weekly restock shop, a luxury organic grocer, or a trade supply store for chefs and culinarians. They all offer a unique insight into how people live and eat in their respective cities. In just five days in LA, we visited five food stores: Trader Joe’s, Ralphs, Erewhon, Whole Foods Market and Surfas Culinary District - each with an audience, aesthetic and ethos of their own.

What was reinforced to me on this trip was America’s obsession with snacks. The crazier, the better. Snack food across the world, but especially in the US, can be a direct reflection of pop culture. Often serving as the ultimate platform to observe trending flavours or ingredients. Things used to take a little longer to trickle down to Aotearoa, but our access to social media has definitely sped things up. Anyone else spotted those Selena Gomez Oreos at the supermarket here?

I noticed the extreme spectrum of superfoods and functional foods through to extravagant indulgence. At Trader Joe’s I saw a lot of ube, mochi and boba. Across the board, pistachio, date and floral flavoured things featured heavily. Erewhon was a particularly fascinating one, housing aisle after aisle of organic food items, both fresh and packaged, all sold at eye-widening prices.

Some of the Trader Joe’s snack selection

The exorbitant smoothie

Before we had even landed in LA, we’d heard about Hailey Bieber’s Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie. An example of celebrity influence at its best (worst?). Available exclusively from all Erewhon locations across California.

We joined a crowd of curious tourists and locals hovering outside the Erewhon store in (clean to the brink of soulless) Beverly Hills, it was clear the hype was rife. Behind the counter, we were transfixed by a team of people endlessly reloading a comically large Vitamix blender jug, filling a constant stream of coconut-striped cups, because the orders just kept on coming.

Knowingly sucked in, we paid a whopping $20USD, which would set you back around $33.45NZD, for one! single! smoothie! Of course we had to try it, everyone was trying it. It's a strawberry coconut smoothie made up of ‘almond milk, organic strawberries, bananas, avocado, dates, maple syrup, collagen peptides, hyaluronic acid, sea moss gel, and coconut cream.’ Part of me wanted to hate it…

The verdict? I was both pleasantly surprised and a little underwhelmed. Though nothing groundbreaking, it was inoffensively sweet and creamy, strawberry forward, and I particularly enjoyed the little specs of date dotted throughout. Thankfully the sea moss gel and hyaluronic acid were undetectable. It was certainly an experience. Would I buy it again? Unlikely. Plabita had a few sips, gave herself brain freeze and moved on. We walked away and spotted the Barbie-pink smoothies all the way down Beverly Drive. I sipped on it slowly for the next hour or so, eventually it got a little warm but there was no way I was wasting a drop or a dollar of it. It felt like we had officially tasted the weirder side of the celebrity culture of LA. Ironically, I’m pretty sure my skin got worse that week.

More shelf stars

Beyond the smoothie, practical limitations (i.e. bag/stomach space) meant I was unable to consume the full array of things I was intrigued by. Though I ate my fair share, for those I couldn’t take with me, I held them for a sweet second, captured their existence and let them go (back on the shelf).

For some of you, this random collection of food items will not be your jam/jelly, but for those who also find foreign supermarkets a thrilling holiday activity, please enjoy this selection from the aisles of Los Angeles…