People Are Paying $19 for a Single Strawberry, and the Internet Is Appalled
The viral luxury fruit is being sold by none other than Erewhon.
Dania Maxwell/Getty Images
How much would you pay for a strawberry? How about one purported to be “the best-tasting strawberry in the entire world?”
Sure, the average U.S. price of fresh strawberries per pound is about $3.80, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). But that is apparently not stopping people from shelling out $19 for a single strawberry at Erewhon, the high-end, celebrity-beloved Los Angeles grocery-store chain.
And of course, the $19 strawberry — imported from Kyoto, Japan, and individually packaged by luxury fruit purveyor Elly Amai in a plastic dome that looks, in our estimation, a bit like a snow globe — has gone viral on social media.
On February 22, influencer Alyssa Antoci — who is related to the owners of Erewhon (reportedly a niece)— posted a video of herself eating the uber-pricey strawberry on TikTok. Antoci captioned her video “insane,” and the response to it truly has been. In only a week and a half, the pinned post has racked up 17 million views — and counting.
“It’s literally sitting on a little tray,” Antoci observes, looking a little confused. “I just eat it like this, right?
Holding the berry in its handle-like half container, she bites in. “Wow, this is the best strawberry. That’s crazy,” Antoci says. “That was the best strawberry I’ve ever had in my life.”
Commenters (and there are upwards of 13.3 K comments thus far) were not entirely convinced — or impressed.
“I actually don’t believe you,” wrote one.
“If I dropped $20 on a strawberry, I’d probably convince myself it was the best one I’ve ever tasted too,” another said.
“That’s a $1.99 strawberry from farmers market, wrapped in lunchable packaging,” a third alleged.
Begged a fourth, “Please stop normalizing spending $19 on one strawberry.”
Adjectives in the comments to Antoci’s post ranged from “embarrassing” to “ridiculous,” “crazy” to “dystopian.” And more than a few called Antoci “gullible.”
“I’m disappointed in humanity,” one person wrote.
“This needs to be illegal,” another said.
Other TikTokers (many, many of them) took matters into their own hands — and tasted the $19 strawberry themselves. (Note that Elly Amai — tagline: “Experience Fruitful Bliss” — has posted instructions online as to how its strawberries are meant to be eaten.)
“It is a very good strawberry,” concluded Remi Cruz, who posts under the handle @missremiashten and was sent the $19 strawberry by Elly Amai.
“It tastes like 20 strawberries in one strawberry,” said David Ngo, aka @davdlifts.
So maybe, in the end, it’s (probably not) a bargain?
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