The Secret Life of Groceries
Books | Business & Economics / Industries / Retailing
3.8
Benjamin Lorr
A deeply curious and evenhanded report on our national appetites. --The New York TimesIn the tradition of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma, an extraordinary investigation into the human lives at the heart of the American grocery store The miracle of the supermarket has never been more apparent. Like the doctors and nurses who care for the sick, suddenly the men and women who stock our shelves and operate our warehouses are understood as 'essential' workers, providing a quality of life we all too easily take for granted. But the sad truth is that the grocery industry has been failing these workers for decades. In this page-turning expose, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on the highly secretive grocery industry. Combining deep sourcing, immersive reporting, and sharp, often laugh-out-loud prose, Lorr leads a wild investigation, asking what does it take to run a supermarket? How does our food get on the shelves? And who suffers for our increasing demands for convenience and efficiency? In this journey: - We learn the secrets of Trader Joe's success from Trader Joe himself - Drive with truckers caught in a job they call sharecropping on wheels - Break into industrial farms with activists to learn what it takes for a product to earn certification labels like fair trade and free range - Follow entrepreneurs as they fight for shelf space, learning essential tips, tricks, and traps for any new food business - Journey with migrants to examine shocking forced labor practices through their eyes The product of five years of research and hundreds of interviews across every level of the business, The Secret Life of Groceries is essential reading for those who want to understand our food system--delivering powerful social commentary on the inherently American quest for more and compassionate insight into the lives that provide it.
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Author
Benjamin Lorr
Pages
328
Publisher
Penguin
Published Date
2020
ISBN
0553459392 9780553459395
Community ReviewsSee all
"Not quite what I thought it was. Felt hard to get through but eye opening"
Mary Long
"A wild ride of connected, if slightly disjointed, in-depth case studies that lay bare and philosophizes about not just the grocery industry, but ultimately the entire food supply chain as we know it in the global north (though with explicit focus on the USA). You have to give the author a bit of leeway to carry you along his winding paths until you reach the inevitable insightful conclusions; but trust that after twenty pages you DO find out that “Joe” is the founder of the beloved US grocery chain “Trader Joe’s” and it’s actually necessary to have all this background so you can understand the history and trajectory of grocery retailing. <br/><br/>Lorr doesn’t flinch from the hard stuff. He’s an odd combination of cynical and optimistic, which suggests to me he’s striking roughly the right note. This is an engaging read but don’t go in expecting a fluff piece or easy actions that “you too can take to save the world!” We’re left with many insights, as well as a crushing sense that the changes that must happen to reach better equity and sustainability are so massive an individual consumer cannot possibly make a tangible influence…except where maybe we could. <br/><br/>My main critique is that in his criticism and exposé of third party certifications, he’s lumped Fair Trade certification with the rest as being basically useless. Based on his critique, it doesn’t seem to apply to Fair Trade - though overall it is helpful to have learned what to be a bit cynical about when it comes to labelling. I’ll be looking differently at MSC certified (and UTZ and “sustainably sourced cocoa”) options and considering redirecting my purchases to more local options. Not that that will remove all problems in the food chain…but maybe it will help a few. And my garden will be expanding this year!"
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Teresa Prokopanko
"I found the topics in this book really interesting, but they barely scratched the surface of the behind-the-scenes of grocery stores. It left me with a lot to think about, but it didn't really give me anything to do with this information. I feel like I don't have any ideas of how to support smaller business or more ethical supply chains. Ultimately, it is an informative book, but it stops there and doesn't take that final step to help readers understand how to shop in the future."
Julie Brough