BK 31: (Jan 5, 2020) The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket

Hi Everyone...

Our Jan 5th discussion will be on the book The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr (Sep 8, 2020). 

With 272 reading pages it will be approximately 8 pages a day. 

Check out the Bio & Videos below:  

"In 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

 
What does it take to run the American supermarket? How do products get to shelves? Who sets the price? And who suffers the consequences of increased convenience end efficiency? In this alarming exposé, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on this highly secretive industry. Combining deep sourcing, immersive reporting, and compulsively readable prose, Lorr leads a wild investigation in which we learn:

• The secrets of Trader Joe’s success from Trader Joe himself
• Why truckers call their job “sharecropping on wheels”
• What it takes for a product to earn certification labels like “organic” and “fair trade”
• The struggles entrepreneurs face as they fight for shelf space, including essential tips, tricks, and traps for any new food business
• The truth behind the alarming slave trade in the shrimp industry

The result is a page-turning portrait of an industry in flux, filled with the passion, ingenuity, and exploitation required to make this everyday miracle continue to function. The product of five years of research and hundreds of interviews across every level of the industry, The Secret Life of Groceries delivers powerful social commentary on the inherently American quest for more and the social costs therein."

Part 1:
 

Part 2

This is what we discussed at the meeting:

* Style of Book

* Whole Foods/Amazon

* Slawsa

* Trader Joes

* Shrimp

* Enslaved Fisherman

* Producing Food product and process to get it in stores 

* Truck Drivers

* Grocery store workers schedule & pay

* History of Grocery Stores

* Video: Manufacturing Consent

* Book: Visual Display of Quantitative Information

* Book: Fast Food Nation

* Video: Michael Moore Supersize Me

* Points of Bliss

* SKUs

* Footnotes

* Similarities of EPA & Big Oil and FDA & Groceries and also Trucking industry

* Reaction of women vast space & variety

* Reaction of foreigners seeing big grocery stores & variety

* Labels/Certifications

* Types of Customers

* Recalls

* Audits

* Ten Commodities 

* USPS/DeJoy

** If there is anything you feel I left out from the meeting, please email me.