002: Erewhon Membership is The Future of Credit Card Perks

I'm serious. They've figured it out.

Erewhon Membership gives access to what Millennials and Gen Z want in a way that major credit card companies have failed to recognize. Why? Read below.

We’re at 655 subscribers, with 180 new subs since the last email. 63.7% open rate. Not bad for a first effort! I expect that % to eventually revert to the industry thinkfluencer average, but I’ll do my best to earn your clicks in the meantime. Welcome to new readers from Stone Island, era.vc, Shopify, Day One Agency, Future Commerce, Apple, Slauson & Co, and Stylus (among others).

This is for all the haters who didn’t believe the open rate stat. I see you!

Discourse

1. There’s drama brewing in the DTC/modern brand/CPG space again, with conflicting reports and much speculation about why the Better Brand website went dark early last week. This developing story has a bit of everything. Rumors and reports of hostile takeovers, employee theft, unpaid invoices! Friends of The City (what I’m going to call people who I know and trust from here on out) Andrea Hernandez from Snaxshot, Nate Rosen from Express Checkout, and Kendall Dickieson are on the case, getting to the bottom of it all, and we’re all the better for it.

2. I’m not quite sure what to think about Tesla’s We, Robot event. Robotaxis! Home robots! Art deco people transporters! Was it a spectacle? Yes. Was everyone on social media talking about it? Yes. Is this an interesting vision of the future, parts of which will absolutely come to fruition in the coming decades? Sure. Was there technical detail and specs and science to explain how it all worked? Of course not. Regardless of all the hype (Elon, despite his many flaws and extreme awkwardness is a showman, and has a fanbase as rabid as anyone on the planet), the market was not convinced (Tesla stock fell 8% on Friday), and trusted industry voices like Josh Wolfe were not shy to call out how the Tesla Optimus robots were actually controlled and operated remotely by humans, and not by AI. Shout out to Josh for the re-tweet btw.

3. Print’s resurgence has been truly impressive, and every week seems to bring with it yet another example of why physical media, in many ways, is preferable, and not just for nostalgia reasons. Loewe’s Magazine looks incredible, and on the marketing front we’re being reminded why print material may serve as a distinctive brand asset to help sell and facilitate commerce. An uptick in people making space and time to put their phones down to pick up physical matter aligns with recent stats that report that 40% of Americans are actively trying to cut down on their screen time. I’m doing my part to support new high-quality and well-written publications by subscribing to or purchasing issues of Arena (shout out to Gabby Goldberg for tweeting this one out), Mountain Gazette, Open by Second Serve, and re-subscribing to Monocle Magazine after a 2+ year hiatus.

4. I’m increasingly concerned that the line between being able to detect real vs AI generated content is blurring at a pace that our brains cannot keep up with, and that we have not yet imagined what the worst negative externalities could be, especially when it comes to long term cognitive development of Gen Alpha and beyond. This past Thursday at the Future Commerce Visions LA conference, I watched a generative AI video that was so powerful that it brought me to tears… and although art in any medium should have the ability to move and evoke emotion, the fact that I consciously knew that it was made with Sora unexpectedly made me feel uneasy. I may be overthinking it, and this reaction is likely a byproduct of being extremely online, but at the same time… objective, base reality feels kinda cooked.

5. To double down on the thought above and to cite the reason #1 that I started this newsletter (refer to 001), it was incredibly difficult to figure out what was really happening in Florida this past week with Hurricane Milton. Twitter (and all of social media, really) was a mess of disinformation, conspiracy theory, and unhelpful memes. A lot of the general chatter and discourse about the storm felt detached from… actual reality. For the first time in forever, I and many others tuned into cable news to sift through the noise. Cable news! Willingly! I think The Atlantic put it best: “The truth is, it’s getting harder to describe the extent to which a meaningful percentage of Americans have dissociated from reality.”

Got my issue of Arena in the mail yesterday. I’m impressed. My first issue of Mountain Gazette is on the way.

Why Erewhon Membership is The Future of Credit Card Perks

It’s tax prep season. Around this time of year I do an annual credit card audit, to optimize my stack in full consideration of points, value, and perks. I’m one of those people who has way too many cards (something like… 15?), and pay an inordinate amount of annual fees because of it. This is partially because of the benefit that a high available credit to debt ratio can bring to my credit score, and also because I’m obsessed with special access and perks. I often modify and optimize my usage based on what I’m doing and how I’m spending in a given year, quarter, or month.

For a very long time, I relied on two primary cards: A co-branded Delta AMEX Reserve, and a Chase Sapphire Reserve. I used to fly Delta a LOT for work and play (averaged over a flight a week as recently as 2019), so the AMEX card made sense to help boost and maintain status, and I used the Sapphire card selectively whenever it made sense from a points-earning perspective. This 2-primary-card-system has since broken down. Delta’s dramatic changes to earning Medallion status have blown up any logical reason for me to keep the AMEX Reserve (I’ve since switched to an AMEX Platinum), and in reviewing all the benefits that my entire stack of cards has to offer… have realized that the perks programs offered by even the highest tier of cards falls short of anything I’d consider… modern. Yes, the $300 off at Equinox is cool from AMEX Plat (you can now use the entirely of that credit for a free year of the Equinox+ app, btw), the $300 Travel credit from Sapphire Reserve is a good fee offset, lounge access is always appreciated when traveling, and the VIP concierge lines sometimes come through as clutch. But these perks feel very Boomer-corporate-coded and don’t really positively affect my day-to-day existence. I want to feel seen by my credit card overlords, and I want to genuinely feel excited about the perks.

I don’t have to explain to you why health, wellness, fitness, and the edges and intersections of longevity and precision medicine are important to Millennials and Gen Z. We know that our food supply has been compromised, we know our mostly suburban sedentary lives are detrimental on both physical and spiritual levels, and we’re willing to spend our disposable income on all sorts of gadgetry to help aid us in our individual health journeys, to the tune of hundreds of Billions of dollars a year. Sure, Chase Sapphire has a Peloton partnership and AMEX Plat has an Equinox partnership, but beyond that, there really isn’t very much that speaks to the addressable and growing wellness market. Enter BILT, and Erewhon.

Thought this tweet was relevant to this discussion.

I’m not team rent forever, but until mortgage interest rates come down to Earth a bit more, I’ll be happy to pay my monthly rent though BILT, the only card that allows customers to earn points from rent. The card is wildly good (too good to be true, even, but their contract with Wells Fargo is through 2029) considering there is no annual fee. In addition to generous point-earning boosters (5x points on local restaurants!), there is a monthly video quiz-style show called “Rent Free” that is reminiscent of HQ Trivia, which has featured special celebrity guests such as Paris Hilton, Brooklyn Beckham, and Tinashe with a grand prize of the card covering the entirely of someone’s rent, free equipment rentals for local boutique fitness classes (such as free shoe rental when you book a spin class with the card), and free SoulCycle classes and curated flat cost dinner package reservations on the 1st of every month. I’ve been finding myself pulling out my BILT card more often lately (it’s metal and has a good weight to it) because it just makes sense for my lifestyle. I also think their logos kinnnnda looks like the Soho House logo.

I know you see it too.

Not too many people are familiar with Erewhon’s annual membership, which offers customers benefits at two Tier levels, $100 (Cafe Membership) or $200 / year (Membership Plus).

I have the lower tier Cafe Membership, which gets me a free small smoothie every month (which honestly pays for the membership by itself since they are $9-$11/each), early access to merch drops, and access to the Lifestyle Collective, which in my opinion is the best curated collection of forward-thinking health, wellness, and longevity perks of any membership platform that is available to the general public at a reasonable price. There is also a case to be made that some of the perks at NeueHouse and Soho House rival Erewhon’s in terms of quality, but both are behind a house membership paywall.

Erewhon’s Lifestyle Collective includes a range of perks that include access or discounts to: Souls, Rivian, Bon Charge, HAELO, Athleta, SEV Laser, Function Health, Pvolve, Prenuvo, Classpass, Hotel Del Coronado, Resorts World Las Vegas, The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Saunabox, Hydration Room, 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay, 1 Hotel South Beach, Stay Awhile, Blush App, Therabody, Conrad Los Angeles, NOVOS, Alo Yoga, Grand Wailea, APL, Open, We Care Spa, Edge Theory Labs, simplehuman, FP Movement, Artha, Myodetox, Waymo, Seed, Platefit, and Aero.

Some of these brands are household names, some of them are fringe (private jet access), but all of it works together to feel modern and curated, so that the newer or relatively unknown names are elevated by the more established and respected partners (which weighs heavily on the resorts and hotels side). Fun fact, I experienced my first Waymo rides via free 7-day Trial offered on the platform. The thing that I appreciate the most and that I think differentiates the Lifestyle Collective from any other perks platform is attention towards digital-native, cutting-edge preventative and personalized health treatments and platforms. For example, their Function Health (100+ advanced lab tests, 5x more comprehensive than a typical physical) perk allows members to skip the 3000+ person waitlist, and their Prenuvo partnership includes a generous $400 discount offer for a whole body MRI scan. I believe this type of access - which also directly and indirectly leads to general consumer awareness and education of these potentially life-saving solutions - is the type that major credit card companies should invest in offering their premium card customers. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw Chase or AMEX or whoever else partner with Erewhon to offer their Southern California-based card holders access to the Lifestyle Collective, or something that feels very much like it.

If you’re so inclined to join, using this referral link will also get you $10 in Erewhon Points. Disclosure: I was not paid in any way by any of the companies mentioned above (I really am just a nerd about this stuff), but some of the links contain referral codes, which could compensate me or earn me points if you transact post-click.

Community

A reminder that I’ll be jumpstarting a Third City Slack Community soon (ETA 2 to 3 weeks), with a focus on sharing research, access, and organizing Zoom and IRL events. One idea I’m excited to kick off is having small, members only group discussions about reports like WGSN’s Future Consumer 2026 and Spotify’s Culture Next. If the community gets traction, I will very likely put it behind a paid membership wall, so get in early and get in free by applying here.

I’ve always thought there should be a multi-player way to discuss reports and research. So I’ll give it a go…

Friend of The City Matt Newberg of HNGRY fame is offering an exclusive discount for the upcoming HNGRY Summit, a cross-collaborative event with innovators in restaurants, tech, and CPG on Friday, October 25th at ChowNow HQ in Culver City, Los Angeles. The day will feature panels, breakout sessions, and food & bev activations with leaders from companies like Square, Tock, sweetgreen, Kismet Rotisserie, Goop Kitchen, Hedley & Bennett, YUZUCO, and more!

Third City subscribers get a 10% discount with promo code THIRDCITY. Tickets/info here.

The ticket is very fairly priced, esp given that you’ll be fed, and I don’t know many more people obsessed with a quality food experience than Matt.

This past Friday, I along with co-organizers Isaac Bess from TikTok and Sam Valenti IV from All Flowers Group and Ghostly, hosted 20+ marketers and creatives in East Hollywood as part of Friend of The City Ben Dietz’s Breakfast Club community / project / movement, which is now happens globally in cities around the world on a weekly basis. Community is so difficult to find in LA, so I’m thankful that a platform already exists to bring people together.

Also, related:

Until Next Week

A special request related to reason #3 for starting this newsletter, explained in 001. If anyone out there has experience treating/researching/caring for a loved one suffering from ILD or Scleroderma, I’d like to chat. Currently going all-in on finding novel treatments and solutions and hope, from anywhere I can get it.

I’m in NYC from this coming Tuesday to Thursday 10/15 - 10/17. If you’re around, and/or know of any cool happenings going on, and/or want to meet up, let me know.

I’m flipping the switch on sponsorship. I know it’s a bit premature, and, but if you want to invest early and have your company featured in the next issue of Third City, shoot me an email. I’ll get back to you with a light media kit with analytics, reader composition, and placement details.

Until then, see you on the internet.