The Secret Life of Groceries

Why it’s on the list: Benjamin Lorr’s five years inside American grocery — Trader Joe’s history, a long-haul trucking school, a Whole Foods buyer’s office, a product’s route from a slave-fished Thai shrimp boat to a shelf. The supermarket reported as a supply chain rather than a store, which makes it an industry book and not a consumer one.

Where I heard about it

• A crowd-sourced X thread — in the replies to @WillManidis asking “what is the single best book you can read that will explain an entire industry?” (the thread, June 2025); the full list is on what is the single best book… (tweet).

Connections

• what is the single best book… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
• Retail — the industry.
• Supply Chain — the actual subject.