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LA Grocery Girl Archetypes

You're not just buying food; you're buying the life you believe in. Five grocery-store girls to see yourself in, and the grown-up realization that your fridge is more honest than your Instagram.

Translated from Jasmine’s original Chinese. The illustrated slides are on the interactive reader.

Key points

Full text

  1. The LA grocery store personality quiz (cover)

    Same city, different grocery carts. You're not just buying food; you're buying the life you believe in. Five LA Grocery Girl Archetypes, sorted in one go.

  2. The Erewhon girl | The Wellness Maxxer

    What you're chasing isn't health; it's upgrading to a higher version of yourself. In the cart: NAD+, sea moss, a Strawberry Glaze smoothie; most likely to say, 'Have you checked your cortisol?' Red flag: turning rest into a KPI. Emotionally exhausted, exceptionally hydrated.

  3. Laurel Supply Girl｜The Intentional Living Girl

    What you're chasing isn't optimization; it's living intentionally. Ceremonial matcha, sourdough, local honey, fresh flowers and candles: healthy, but make it beautiful. Anxiety triggers: too long without nature, life losing its rituals.

  4. Whole Foods Girl｜The Functional Wellness Girl

    What you're chasing is stability. You don't want to ascend; you just want to not fall apart. In the cart: eggs, salmon, avocados, Greek yogurt; weekends = workout, meal prep, a Costco restock, zoning out to Netflix. Stable is the new sexy.

  5. Bristol Farms Girl｜The California Hostess

    What you're chasing isn't wellness; it's living really well. Peonies, triple-cream brie, rosé, a hot-food platter: hospitality is her love language. Life goal: create a life people want to come back to.

  6. Trader Joe's Girl｜The Happy Chaos Girl

    What you're chasing is happiness, not perfection: as long as today's fun. Soup dumplings, elote chips, seasonal limited editions and grab-bag snacks; most likely to say, 'I wasn't planning to buy this.' No plans, best plans.

  7. The funniest part: nobody's really buying food

    It's a vision of life. At Erewhon you're buying an upgrade, at Laurel Supply taste, at Whole Foods stability, at Bristol Farms relationships, at Trader Joe's happiness. Same groceries, different dreams.

  8. LA Grocery Store Anthropology, side by side

    Everyone's grocery shopping, but chasing completely different lives: life goals, breakfast, workouts, recovery, go-to brands, catchphrases, anxiety triggers, superpowers and red flags, all five girls side by side.

  9. The LA Grocery Store Guide, star ratings

    What is each grocery store actually good at? Star ratings for price, organic produce, supplements, matcha, flowers, cheese, wine, snacks and party shopping; the one-line summary: at Erewhon you buy your ideal self, at Trader Joe's you buy happiness.

  10. How locals actually split their grocery runs

    LA girls don't have one grocery store, they have a grocery strategy: where to go for what, plus insider rankings (most LA grocery store, easiest to go broke, most worth a membership); and if they could only keep one, 90% of locals pick Whole Foods.

  11. Grown-up realization: your fridge is more honest than your Instagram

    What you buy, stockpile and eat says what you believe in right now. Your fridge knows who you are. Tell me in the comments: which one are you?

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In this series

Read it with the slides →The illustrated version on the LA Guide →

An original JSLALALAND field guide by Jasmine Chang (@jslalaland).