Late Stage Groceries - Snaxshot

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Late Stage Groceries<br>the groceryslop is endless

Snaxshot<br>Jun 11, 2026

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This essay explores the corruption of the modern day grocer that has fueled the boom of GLP-1s as the only remedy to products that serve no purpose but to increase shareholder value instead of nurturing the actual consumer. It’s part of a series of essays and thoughts around modern day grocery stores and serves as an introduction to an upcoming bigger project.

In 2026, it’s hard for anything to really be “gag worthy” and not because we’re knee deep in AI slop, but mostly because a lot of insane products are already in the market. My recent theory is that April Fool’s lost relevancy in the era of brainrot—you think “Breast Milk Mayo” or “sourdough starter martinis” sound crazy?<br>Not in Elon’s America.<br>Snaxshot is a reader-supported publication, we report on cultural convergences within the food and beverage industry and write thought provoking and well researched insights. No advertising or affiliate links involved. Support our work by upgrading to PAID.

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\The grocery store itself is a manifestation of the chaos chasm we’ve been stuck in—in my last essay, The New Grocer, we touched on how the physical changes that this retail institution has gone through has distorted the way we relate to pantry and grocery items. This trasmutation was somewhat predicted by the likes of Andy Warhol when he elevated Campbell soups into a form of art, heralding Americans venture into mass consumption, a true visionary. When I visited Omega Mart, an interactive exhibit by Meow Wolf, which is the most accurate representation of what grocery feels like in 2020s, and what can be defined as a “late stage grocer”—the exhibit takes around what seemingly is your average grocery store, that is until you take a good look at the actual products in the aisles. Nut mixes go by “Nutrient Rich Pellets for Homo Sapiens” there are “nut-free salted peanuts” and “dehydrated water” they have “Corn PM” for those who may be suffering insomnia caused by a corn deficiency, and “Root-beer flavored vape juice” comes in 2L bottles.

The interactive show continues as you dive past the employees breakroom into mind bending tunnels and abandoned cabins and by the end of it, it becomes clear that this is a somewhat extraterrestial corporation trying to cosplay as humans, and serving up what they conceived as human drinks and snacks, and in it’s imperfection, from the dairy aisle glitching, to the cute tomato snails and happles it’s actually the perfect metaphor to our current state of grocery—giving us merely an illusion of what we may actually need.<br>Simultaneously, Americans’ skepticisim around food continues to grow, from fake fruit conspiracy theories, to people simply not knowing how eggs work? As a generation, our disconnect with what nurtures us is what has allowed for the commodification of wellness to take place—that is, the reselling inherent human knowledge in pretty packaging at a premium as well as the rise of faux-stalgia in the form of glorifying trad wives and blue collar cosplay (farm life) a glorification of a time we mostly know nothing about considering we are the snacking generation, good ol’ Lunchable-fed Americans.

It’s easy for late stage grocers to capitalize on our collective brainrot—truly there’s nothing that won’t be marketed to us as “nutritional” from candy cold lattes and Skittles drinks, to overly Goopified adaptogenic ramens and palo santo brewed water. In need of protein—you can have it as candy, see Hershey’s recent hire of a “Director of protein business”, you can also get fiber from cotton candy and collagen from cookies. Last week, the tonic bar at Erewhon in Santa Monica was closed for roaches, a luxury grocery store that charges almost $30 for a smoothie, and profits massively from it, has a vermin problem because in typical late stage grocer fashion, it’s all about giving you an illusion of what you think you want, in Erewhon’s case, groceries with a side of status signaling.<br>In the era of late stage grocers, it’s no wonder Ozempic has become the drug of choice at a time where it feels like there’s nothing nutritional much less nurturing worth eating or buying. Our mechanisim of defense against parody pantry aisles has become tricking our bodies into satiation, further severing whatever tie we have left with what is such a human cornerstone experience, food and beverage. As we zoom past the last of the 2020s, one thing is for sure, AI is concerning, but grocery slop is real.<br>Share

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stephanie<br>5h

This is a funny read and should have more likes! Thanks for writing 🎀

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