The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket

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? On this alarming exposé, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain in 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 very important tips, tricks, and traps for any new food business
• The truth at the back of 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 on a regular basis miracle continue to function. The product of five years of research and hundreds of interviews across each and every level of the industry, The Secret Life of Groceries delivers powerful social observation at the inherently American quest for more and the social costs therein.