The Secret Life of Groceries

The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket

By: Benjamin Lorr

Narrated by: Benjamin Lorr

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!