March 2009
Intermediate to advanced
256 pages
5h 19m
English
Created just 75 years ago, in August 1930 in Queens, New York, the supermarket began life as bouncy baby King Kullen, a 1,000-item shop. Today, it is the bloated, dirty, frontline of a class war pitting the mercilessly underpaid staff, rarely able to afford to live anywhere near these bastions of consumption, against their convenience seeking, overwrought, ready-to-pounce customers. Grocery stores in blue-collar or working-poor neighborhoods are just that much dirtier, grimier and sullen. Add to that mix the frequent accusation that absentee owners price-gouge local patrons who have no shopping options outside the neighborhood.
In this country we evaluate food not by its freshness, ...