Bowery Farming taps into that Gen Z wellness consumer with NYC spa-like party

NEW YORK — When the invitation from Bowery Farming appeared in my e-mail inbox, a tingle of excitement sparked in me.

The event held promise, especially for a workday: Bowery House, an interactive wellness retreat in the heart of New York City for one day only.

I was not disappointed.

Electronic music pulled me from the elevator, enveloping me with an “it”-ness among the healthy-lifestyle-focused Gen Z crowd, draped in designer leisurewear and Earth-friendly everything as they looked at their iPhones as much as the people there on the scene.

Glowing white paper lanterns bobbed above sand-colored pottery filled with dried wheat stalks and beige feathery fronds.

One canvas tote bag said: “Highly forkable. Bowery.”

“There's a consumer who's interested in not just eating healthy; they're also interested in pursuing healthy lifestyles. For us at Bowery, we wanted to enable that, to support some of those lifestyle goals that our target [consumer] has. It's about being a brand that has a meaningful role in their lives beyond just the dish,” said Frank Renwick, Bowery's vice president of marketing.

“It's about connecting with fans who have similar values that we do so they can be advocates for the future of our food system," he said.

New York-based Bowery is one of several urban indoor farm companies that have snowballed in the last five years — part of the controlled environment agriculture movement — growing leafy greens, herbs and now berries in vertical rows in tall warehouses using LED lights, precision-growing methods and sustainable practices. The produce is grown near the point of consumption to simplify the supply chain, reduce carbon footprint and increase freshness.

For the event, Bowery partnered with other health, wellness and environmentally conscious brands to offer breakfast, Pilates, massages, facials, manicures, lunch, tea, lattes, a sound bath, aromatherapy, and a cocktail and mocktail-infused happy hour with DJ Moniki.

Social media influencers and New York City dwellers already following other wellness brands were invited to participate in the hands-on sensory experience.

Moniki Rodrigues is a DJ for Bowery Farming events and also led classes as the Pilates instructor.

“I have a lifestyle brand called ‘Feels Pretty Good,'” Rodrigues said. On Instagram, her @feelsprettygood account has 101,000 followers.

Raven Garcia, 20, from the Bronx, chatted with two other social influencer friends she met online and became friends with in-person. Garcia will travel outside the city to Dobbs Ferry in suburban Westchester County to buy groceries at MOM's Organic Market, she said.

This event was her first exposure to Bowery Farming.

“I guess they're focused on wellness and health and being more clean and natural, and that's what I'm trying to focus on too,” Garcia said, mentioning her upcoming launch of a podcast called “Hersperience.” “I'd love to see what else Bowery has to offer because it looks like they're going the same direction with their goals and mission.”

This alignment of values between brand and shopper is what marketing agencies have been telling me produce brands need to do to get and retain the younger demographic. Young people shop their values. They vote with their dollar. And they still need education on what's out there and how to use it, like every generation does.

Savannah Vinson, 22, lives in Brooklyn's trendy Williamsburg neighborhood and has almost 150,000 TikTok followers and 36,600 Instagram followers. Until this Bowery event, Vinson didn't realize there were so many types of lettuces and flavors.

“We think it would be cool to do a video of all the varieties of lettuces,” she said with her friends. “It seems like Bowery really cares about flavor, texture and taste.”

Garcia nodded.

“They're really intentional about it,” she said.