The Secret Life of Groceries

The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket

By: Benjamin Lorr

Narrated by: Benjamin Lorr

Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

The American supermarket is an everyday miracle. But what does it take to run one? What are the inner workings of product delivery and distribution? Who sets the price? And who suffers for the convenience and efficiency we’ve come to expect? In this rollicking exposé, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on this highly secretive industry. Combining deep sourcing, immersive reporting, and compulsively listenable prose, Lorr leads a wild investigation to:

• 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 “rain forest friendly” and “fair trade”;
• 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 result is a compelling portrait of an industry in flux, filled with the passion, ingenuity, and inequity required to make this piece of the American dream run. The product of five years of research and hundreds of interviews across every level of the industry, The Secret Life of Groceries is essential listening 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.

©2020 Benjamin Lorr (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Good Listen

Good listen, I have been recommending it to people. Important information to know as we eat everyday!

Great story

What an amazing storyteller voice. The story itself was intriging and the authors voice made it even better. Maybe it's sort of like that NPR quality voice that he's got but he should be doing more voice work. By the way I have no background in grocery, distribution or food service, I'm just an entrepreneur who wanted to learn more about how these businesses work. However the result is I may never eat shrimp again.

I loved this book!

Enthralling, I can't say enough about it, I have been telling everyone about this book! who would have thought a book about grocery stores would be, could be this good.

Must read

This book showed me just how much I didn't know about what I don't know. From the dirty details of a Whole Foods fish counter, to the way America runs on trucking, to the modern day slavery in the Thai shrimp industry, this book greatly opened my eyes to the complexity of food supply chains. Absolute must read for anyone who eats!

New information on where your groceries come from.

I really enjoyed this book. Some reviewers mentioned how the author would go off on tangents, and while I agree, they were related to the process of getting groceries from the farm/nature to the store. They were interesting nonetheless. I enjoyed the history of Trader Joe's the most interesting and found the section on Thai Shrimp fisherman the most shocking and eye opening. I also loved that the author was also the narrator and was able to read it as it was meant to be. I would definitely recommend this book!

Fascinating

This young fellow has done the world a big service. This historical overview of grocery as well as plumbing the depths below the surface was quite eye opening. I’ll never look at my food the same way again. But I think it’s the very personal contacts he has made with individuals and their stories they was particularly resonant.

Very, very interesting!

I really liked this book. It details the life of groceries from beginning to end. The author goes into great detail now today’s grocery stores have emerged, how the truckers who freight our foods are involved and all the secrets - some good, some so sad - come about. You won’t look at your grocery store, especially the seafood department the same way again. Benjamin Lorr not only wrote this story but he actually lived it. Amazing. I highly recommend this book.

Interesting, broad, scary but amusing

I disagree that this author reads too fast, and I really enjoyed his performance. I found it fun and engaging and not soporific like an NPR commentator. I liked the content of the book. It definitely convinced me to never be a trucker, as the chapter on the trucking industry was one of the most exploitation-filled (second to the Thai shrimp industry which is full of slavery). I also enjoyed his writing style. Some of his asides had me laughing out loud. If you’re interested in the tea on Trader Joe’s, ethical certifications like “natural” or “cruelty free,” the insane process of getting stores to carry new product, or how crazy secretive the whole industry is, you will learn something from this book.

An incredibe eye opener

We all spend so much time at the grocery store and take for granted how all our favorite products wind up neatly organized for our consumption. This book does a fantastic job explaining how it all works, but much of the story is pretty upsetting. I will be much more patient with truck drivers when on the highway, and I’ll never eat frozen shrimp again!!

Very educational!

Really puts grocery shopping in perspective. Not sure how I can eat shrimp again, with a good conscience.