The Secret Life of Groceries

Grocery shopping in America can be quite a culture shock for those not familiar. Imagine huge warehouses full of intricately or bulk-packaged products lining each and every marketable space with little room to breathe and all the pressure to checkout sooner rather than later (lest you, heavens forbid, get stuck in a checkout line). How did it get to be this way, how sustainable is it, and why does each grocery chain compete with each other for product selection as fiercely as (American) football teams compete for the Superbowl? For a deep dive into those questions, Benjamin Lorr has you covered with The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket. The tl;dr is, who knows how long we can keep this up…