The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin LorrMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was actually pretty darn good as a book.
The histories of 7-11 and Trader Joe's were fascinating to me, as was that of the early grocery store in general (and ice stands!).
He then narrates his experience living with a truck driver, which was extremely interesting. I remember I had a great uncle who was a truck driver his whole life, and was extremely proud of all the places he'd been. I guess times have changed.
He then got a job at Whole foods, which was informative to delve into.
The final chapter on Thailand/Myanmar is the most depressing, but probably the most important. Through it all he is actually quite nuanced and goes out of his way not to generalize.
Having said all that, this is very much "qualitative" rather than "quantitative", with mostly anectodal tidbits rather than data, and definitely more subjective than not. That isn't to say I disagree with what he says (and I'm in no position to do so, since he clearly did his homework), but I guess it would have been nice to have some quantitative studies or something to go along with this.
PS:
I saw a reviewer saying this book was too "woke", which seems extremely odd. While I'm definitely not a fan of the "wokeness" surrounding me, I don't see how it applies to this book. I guess mentioning truck drivers not being able to earn a living and fishermen being exploited in Thailand is woke. What was it called when we talked about exploitation in the 1980s and 90s then?
I'm thinking some reviews say more about the reviewer than the book.
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