Erewhon put on blast after allegedly throwing out fresh fruit and vegetables
Under usual circumstances, Erewhon would be celebrating the new opening of their Pasadena branch. However, a video that has gone viral on social media has led to mass criticism. This is because it shows a dumpster on their premises that has copious amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables that have seemingly been thrown out by the supermarket.
This video was originally uploaded to Instagram which has since gained nearly 25,000 views. Here, the video is captioned: “I usually don’t do this because I like to use this platform to remind people of the beauty in the world, but this egregious example of food waste just annoyed me. Outside of the doors of a newly open Erewhon market in Pasadena sits an example of everything wrong with the American food system. Because it’s not picture perfect to fit the aesthetics of their brand, it’s tossed in the dumpster to rot. Not donated to a local composting program.”
In fairness to Erewhon, it is not known why these foods were thrown away and this video could potentially be misleading. Nonetheless, it does look fresh and if nothing else, is bad for public relations. Reacting on Reddit, one Pasadena resident wrote: “I was there last weekend and there were a ton of people at that dumpster picking out produce and taking it.”
Overall, it looks like Erewhon dropped the ball on this one and their Pasadena opening could have gotten off to a better start in terms of publicity.
