Gen Z splurges more on food than on travel, clothing, and nights out

Searching for the words “Erewhon haul” on TikTok will generate two things: hundreds of thousands of results and – for those who are both on-trend and under 30 – extreme levels of envy.

Gen Z influencers frequently show off their high-end grocery carts, filled to the brim with the Los Angeles grocery store’s famously pricey products: sea moss gel, celebrity smoothies, and boutique soda brands feature heavily in the most popular posts.

“Yes this is ridiculous, but I had to splurge,” nutrition influencer Olivia Hedlund captioned a video, revealing everything she bought during her “$150 Erewhon haul.”

While TikTok influencers have a vested interest in presenting their daily lives as luxury-filled fun, they are not the only young people spending on snacks. In February, a McKinsey & Company survey revealed that groceries were the top category that Gen Z-ers and Millennials planned to splurge on – surpassing clothing, going out, and traveling, according to a Business Insider report.

This development has arrived concurrently with a very different phenomenon: 27% of Americans also admit to skipping meals, due to low wages and the high cost of groceries, according to a May survey from CreditKarma.

While, for the most part, it seems unlikely that the people buying the $20 Hailey Bieber Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie at Erewhon are the same ones skipping meals to get by, there are some young people who admit to bending over backward to afford their little treats.

Last year, one 23-year-old told The Cut that even as she sacrificed things like air-conditioning to live on $40,000 a year in LA, she continued purchasing her favorite Erewhon snacks. Her luxurious groceries include $10 keto brownies, $8 peanut butter-filled dates, and $12 peanut butter and chocolate-coated gluten-free cereal clusters.

“I’ve made jokes about how no matter what, it’ll always be in my budget, even though I’m a starving artist,” she told the outlet. “It’s become my identity.”

It’s possible that the trend of splurging on groceries is, to some extent, a Gen Z-specific Lipstick Effect. In the 1990s, economics and sociology professor Juliet Schor, identified a phenomenon wherein people spent more on lipstick during recessions in part because it was something they could reapply in public where others would see them using luxury products.

“They are looking for affordable luxury, the thrill of buying in an expensive department store, indulging in a fantasy of beauty and sexiness, buying ‘hope in a bottle.’ Cosmetics are an escape from an otherwise drab everyday existence,” Schor wrote.

For some Gen Z-ers, spending on Olipop soda or a $45 tin of potato chips is filling the same role.

“I love to take Erewhon when I’m flying, ’cause I freakin’ fly economy, I’m not private-jetting anywhere,” Luba Kaplanskaya, a 25-year-old who worked three part-time jobs and lived with her parents, told the Cut. “To just be in a comfortable sweat suit or a Lulu (LULU-1.90%) ’fit and then have Erewhon? I feel like I’m worth a billion dollars.”