The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr. Benjamin is writing about an amazing resource that impacts our lives: the grocery store. For the most part, the amount of research Benjamin spent over a period of five years pays off most handsomely.
Consequently, The Secret Life of Groceries allows readers to look deeply across supply chains that impact everyone across this country and most industrial nations.
Benjamin begins with a history of American grocery stores. Certainly interesting to read about the founder of Trader Joe’s, how a Texas oil company launched 7-Eleven, and why shopping carts were a late addition in 1937.
I believe the history of change would be most appealing to readers as we today take for granted so many elements within our local grocery stores.
However, amazing as it sounds grocery stores had to hire men to push the cards as women were shopping. The globalization of stores and supply chains are addressed. I also really enjoyed learning about the the grocery story supply chain from many points of view. For this purpose, from Texas to Tokyo: 7-Eleven is a 2005 subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan Company which runs over 1,700 stores across 17 countries. Food is an amazing global business.
Trucking industry
The chapter that I especially found interesting was Part II: Distribution of Responsibility. It begins: Three A.M. Outside the Aldi Distribution Center in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and certainly does not disappoint. In fact, Benjamin was actually riding with a truck driver to learn all about her world. Amazing how trucking companies prey upon people promising the sky yet leaving many in debt for decades.
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