After Meme-Stock Mania, Beyond Meat Gets an Erewhon Bump

It has been a strange year for Beyond Meat. The once-trailblazing plant-based pioneer—whose sizzling patties helped define the early meatless boom—has spent much of 2025 trying to find its footing again. Earlier this year, the company posted weaker-than-expected revenue, reported another quarterly loss, and quietly launched a debt-restructuring plan to trim hundreds of millions from its balance sheet.

Then, in late October, something unexpected happened: Beyond Meat became a meme stock. Retail investors on Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) began piling in, sending its shares soaring more than 100 percent in a day—an echo of the GameStop-style frenzy that once gripped Wall Street. As Reuters reported, short sellers had been betting heavily against the company, only to watch the price suddenly rocket upward. “Loss-making, heavily shorted, meme-able ticker and easy to understand—the classic meme cocktail,” Ivan Cosovic of Breakout Point told the outlet.

Beyond Meat

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For a brand built on innovation rather than internet hype, the moment was surreal. Its name was trending again—but not for its food. After years of headlines about restaurant partnerships and celebrity investors, Beyond Meat was back in the news for its stock volatility. And yet, just as the market chatter reached its loudest, the company has returned its focus to something more tangible: burgers.

The Erewhon bump

In Los Angeles, Beyond Meat has found a new showcase in Erewhon—the upscale grocery chain known for its pricey smoothies, celebrity sightings, and near-religious devotion to clean eating. The company’s latest products, Beyond Burger IV and Beyond Beef IV, are now stocked across Erewhon locations in Southern California.

The rollout marks a different kind of reset. These new versions are the first plant-based meats certified by the Clean Label Project, made with yellow peas, red lentils, and faba beans—plus avocado oil in place of the canola once criticized by health-conscious shoppers. Each serving delivers 21 grams of protein with no GMOs, cholesterol, hormones, or antibiotics.

Erewhon

In a statement announcing the partnership, Beyond Meat founder and CEO Ethan Brown said the Erewhon launch “strikes at shared goals and values between [the] two companies,” emphasizing quality ingredients and sustainable sourcing. Erewhon’s reputation for curating only the “purest” versions of every trend makes it a proving ground for brands trying to regain credibility with discerning shoppers.

For Beyond Meat, being on Erewhon’s shelves brings a much-needed status boost. This is the kind of store where consumers willingly pay a premium for what feels like the cleanest, best-sourced option. It’s also where food trends begin before trickling down to mainstream grocers. A presence here signals that Beyond Meat is less of a processed substitute and more part of a modern, nutrient-forward lifestyle.

Still, Erewhon isn’t Costco. The grocer has just 10 locations, all in Southern California, and its loyalists tend to treat grocery shopping as a wellness ritual, not a weekly necessity. Analysts have noted that while Erewhon can elevate brand perception, it won’t by itself turn around declining sales. Danni Hewson of AJ Bell told Reuters that consumers have become more skeptical of plant-based meat in general, preferring “simple alternatives like beans and pulses.”

Even so, the timing may be right. After a turbulent year of layoffs, losses, and meme-stock mania, Beyond Meat’s Erewhon debut gives it something more solid to talk about—a focus on ingredients, not earnings. Whether that’s enough to rebuild its reputation will depend on how shoppers respond.