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We read this for book club. An interesting, quick read that begins to explain the ins and outs of the grocery industry. Overall, Lorr writes from an educated, upper middle class perspective, and seems somehow surprised to find out there is no ethical consumption in capitalism, er in grocery buying. This will not be earth shattering to most. Lorr muses about America’s conflation of identity with consumer choices, and bemoans our lack of meaningful action to address the oppression of those who bea...
Benjamin Lord presents a scathing expose on your local grocery stores. The food that is put on your shelves may not be as wholesome as you may think. At least I didn't think so. The author first describes the cleaning out of the seafood counter. First you must remove all the fish from the counter. Once this is done, all the ice is shoveled out. The more you shovel the more smelly it becomes. Under all all the ice are dead remains of fish that has settled to the bottom of the counter over the pas...
Equal parts depressing and inspiring, this is a thorough and well-written journey into the world of the grocery supply chain in the spirit of Upton Sinclair and the great muckrakers of old. Along the journey, you'll meet grocery employees and managers, truckers, product creators, and the people at the bottom of the chain that keep your food at the prices you expect. I can tell you, you won't like that chapter one bit. Honestly, a good deal of this book will upset you. And it should. But it will
As I have previously mentioned, I love reading books about the systems at work in our world that we barely ever think about. Grocery stores are one such system. The supply chain for things like grocery stores has been slightly more in the news lately, given disruptions caused by the pandemic (not to mention a ship blocking the Suez Canal for days). Yet the news can only ever give a cursory explanation of the complexity of the supply chain. Benjamin Lorr dives deep in The Secret Life of Groceries...
Reading this was like standing in a checkout line behind a person who is fruitlessly searching through their coin purse for exact change.
This is not rated because I didn't read more than 1/2. It's more about the author's views re "product" than it is the title. It's coastal California in great majority of determinations. It's like looking at "history" with only the negatives numbered and less positives than you could count on one hand. Which is extremely "odd" considering the stats given in the first chapters about food costs and distribution in the USA.And there you go too. This is more about quality and a couple of specific bus...
Superb reporting, superb writing, thoughtful, philosophical, well-researched, funny in spots, and a bit hallucinogenic. Not a simple survey or history of grocery stores, far deeper than that,and no attempt to be encyclopedic. You will not see a grocery store the same way again. And maybe you won’t quite see life the same way again. This is the review that made me want to read the book: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/bo...
This book dives into the craziness that goes into the background to make supermarkets 'work'. At first it's kind of weird and funny but the book gets very dark, detailing the human suffering that gets inflicted to make your shrimp slightly cheaper.
This book on the supply chain in the US was actually quite gripping. Sometimes depressing too, but this topic impacts our lives so intimately that I loved learning more. This book was about how we get our groceries in the US. It covers everything from the rise of Trader Joe's to the life of a trucker (grim), from what it takes to get your product on supermarket shelves to slave labor employed in the shrimp fishing industry (even more grim). I appreciated that there were some lighter topics in he...
I picked up this book somewhat begrudgingly. It was a non-fiction book on an Important Topic, and I felt I should read it given the subject matter and that I patronize grocery stores more than any other business. And wow, was I surprised! It was much more of an enjoyable read than I anticipated. Lorr’s writing is funny, personal, and informative. He weaves in the research and data into people’s personal stories, which I enjoyed. Normally, I find footnotes annoying and tedious. But even his footn...
