The Secret Life of Groceries
by Benjamin Lorr · first published 2020
80% recommend13% neutral7% critical
Why HN recommends it
A reporter-style look at how American supermarkets work, covering grocery store economics, supplier relationships, and the supply chain from sourcing to shelf; suits readers curious about business and food systems.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 Trade
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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There's a fantastic book, called the secret life of groceries by Benjamin Lorr. In it, he mentions that at the FDA they call Trader Joe's "Recall Joe's" for their disturbingly high number of recalls
on “Some insects I found inside dried Turkish figs from Trader Joe’s” ↗* The Secret Life of Groceries - stopped me from eating shrimp * Why We Sleep - changed my sleeping habits * How to Win Friends and Influence People - stopped me from being pedantic and argumentative
on “Ask HN: Which book/essay changed your life?” ↗In a similar vein, but more broad (and less optimistic) I thought The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr was pretty good.
on “Trader Joe Wrote a Memoir” ↗Related, and an outstanding read: ”The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket” by Benjamin Lorr
on “Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores” ↗Related, "the secret life of groceries" by Benjamin Lorr. A surprisingly, gripping book about grocery stores.
on “Grocery Mergers? Not So Good” ↗I recently finished a book called "The Secret Life of Groceries" by Benjamin Lorr. Amazing book. I learned that grocery and supermarket stores of the past, seemed to have worked very hard to give the best customer experience possible. Today it feels that customer…
on “Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores” ↗For greater insight into how grocery stores are run in America, I highly recommend the gripping book "The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket" by Benjamin Lorr. The author gets a job at Whole Foods and then works his way through the food chain, reporting every step of the way, and relating it back…
on “Canadians are angry with their biggest supermarket” ↗If you're interested in grocery store economics, I strongly recommend: The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr, and Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America by Michael Ruhlman Extremely insightful about how much it cost to run a grocery…
on “NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027” ↗…NASA's space program. 10. Across the Airless Wilds by Earl Swift - Development of the moon buggy. 11. Apollo: The Race to the Moon by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox - Apollo missions. 12. The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr - Food supply chains. 13. The Prize by Daniel Yergin - Oil industry evolution. 14. Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson - Ambitious wreck divers. 15. The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗…is great, really really like the sticky feature of weekly/monthly/yearly digests. I get most of my book recs from HN comments. Usually they are non-technical, anything from Michael Mauboussin to the Secret Life of Groceries. I would appreciate a simple "coreHN / not-coreHN" switch. (CoreHN would be books about startups, technologies, etc. I prefer the diverse topics, which are often buried in HN). Also curious - are…
on “Show HN: YaHNd – HN Books: The Best Books of Hacker News” ↗If you're curious, The Secret Life of Groceries is a good (and interesting) read. One tl; dr thing is that the supermarkets are a _supplier_ to both end customers and those with products to sell. They supply shelf space and customer reach, in the…
on “Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech” ↗…Order to Live The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream Homo Deus The Confidence Men The Bomber Mafia Calypso Termination Shock Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor The Dawn of Everything The Secret Life of Groceries The Hidden Life of Trees
on “Neanderthals hunted dangerous cave lions, study shows” ↗If you’re interested in grocery stores check out The Secret Life of Groceries[0]. It’s a book that goes into the history of grocery stores in the US along with how the modern supply chain works from sourcing to production to delivery to selling. It also covers how Trader Joe’s…
on “Aldi: Culture and Operations of a Hard Discounter (2023)” ↗i think of books like * the secret life of groceries * omnivore's dillema * toy story * the box as business books. they have a bunch of case studies and union politics and a general idea theyre trying to convey. without industry experience, i wouldnt…
on “Business books are entertainment, not strategic tools” ↗…exclusive and unprecedented interviews, CEOs and senior traders from these seven giants describe in their own words how the agricultural markets are changing, and how they are adapting to those changes." The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket By Benjamin Lorr https://shepherd.com/book/the-secret-life-of-groceries Five years of research really explains large swaths of our food system and how it…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗