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Michael Ruhlman

Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America Paperback – May 29, 2018

by Michael Ruhlman (Author)

4.4 545 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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In Grocery, bestselling author Michael Ruhlman offers incisive commentary on America's relationship with its food and investigates the overlooked source of so much of it—the grocery store.

In a culture obsessed with food—how it looks, what it tastes like, where it comes from, what is good for us—there are often more questions than answers. Ruhlman proposes that the best practices for consuming wisely could be hiding in plain sight—in the aisles of your local supermarket. Using the human story of the family-run Midwestern chain Heinen's as an anchor to this journalistic narrative, he dives into the mysterious world of supermarkets and the ways in which we produce, consume, and distribute food. Grocery examines how rapidly supermarkets—and our food and culture—have changed since the days of your friendly neighborhood grocer. But rather than waxing nostalgic for the age of mom-and-pop shops, Ruhlman seeks to understand how our food needs have shifted since the mid-twentieth century, and how these needs mirror our cultural ones.

A mix of reportage and rant, personal history and social commentary, Grocery is a landmark book from one of our most insightful food writers.

Language

English
Publisher

Abrams Press
Publication date

May 29, 2018
Dimensions

5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

1419729535
ISBN-13

978-1419729539
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Ruhlman is the author of critically acclaimed books including Grocery (Abrams, 2017) and From Scratch (Abrams, 2019). He has collaborated on several bestselling restaurant cookbooks, including The French Laundry Cookbook, Bouchon, and Alinea.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abrams Press; Reprint edition (May 29, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1419729535
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1419729539
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #103,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #29 in Restaurant & Food Industry (Books)
- #81 in Hospitality, Travel & Tourism (Books)
- #103 in Food Science (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 545 ratings

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Michael Ruhlman

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Michael Ruhlman is the author or co-author of more than 25 books—non-fiction, fiction, and memoir—the majority of which are on food and cooking, including the bestselling "The Soul of a Chef," "The French Laundry Cookbook" with Thomas Keller, "Charcuterie" with Brian Polcyn, "Ruhlman's Twenty," which won both James Beard and IACP awards, and most recently, "Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America." He lives in New York City.

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Amazon Customer

Great overview of American food system

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 26, 2022

Verified Purchase

Although this book focused on one grocery store , it provided good insight into how grocery scores in america operate. Not a business book, not a food book, but an interesting read.

3 people found this helpful

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Stella Carrier

Extensive Grocery Details

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

I admit that this kindlebook that is Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America by Michael Ruhlman piqued my curiosity even though I am fortunate to reside with my husband in an area with multiple grocery stores within easy access of public transportation: Giant, Whole Foods, Aldi’s, Lidl,Costco, Shoppers,Safeway, etc. A sampling of the details included in this kindlebook include: the author’s father loved to go grocery shopping, the country’s first grocery stores in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries carried about two hundred products, during the final decades of the twentieth century referenced in a 2014 Consumer Reports article the average supermarket had quadruple nine thousand items (by 2008), info on early 1930s origins of the King Kullen supermarket chain, starts on page 59 of a business consultant originally Orlando Florida based who had worked with Bristol Farms in Southern California, Ball’s food stores in Kansas, Lund&Byerly’s in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area,Festival Foods, Roche Bros supermarkets in the Boston area/Dorothy Lane Market in Dayton Ohio, a section on page 92 titled Breakfast The Most Dangerous Meal of the Day, authors reference to a type of salmon grown in the Pacific ocean on page 113, a section that starts on page 140 part III the center aisles which follows another title a few of the twenty thousand new products for your consideration for instance the author’s reference to breakfast bar shelves that include Nature Valley-General Mills, Quaker-Pepsi-Co,the authors experience/take with sampling microwavable frittata, and much more.

3 people found this helpful

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You May Never View The Grocery Store The Same Way Again

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

The grocery store seems like such a boring and mundane subject to write about….how hard can it really be. Order products, stock the shelves, let customers pick, check them out and repeat. That, however, is far from the way grocery stores work. In fact, the stores and business are so much more complex than it seems they should be.

Grocery stores have a history that goes back to the area of around the 1930s in America. That is when what we consider the grocery store, as we know it, seems to have originated. And anyone who saw one of those would never believe what they have morphed into today. Even the grocery stores I shopped in with my mother in the 1960s are a far cry from what the stores have become today.

The author uses a medium sized, family owned chain in the Cleveland, Ohio area as the chain to study. Be assured that there are great differences between these size chains and the mega chains that dot the countryside, and the author is quick to point out those differences. The biggest difference is the level of customer involvement and the ability to respond to customer demands.

The author covers the store from every department, explaining the difficulties in operating those areas and how the stores decide at what should be stocked. It is a truly amazing look at the work that goes into how the stores operate and how complicated the dance is between getting fresh food in at the right time and working to avoid spoilage.

My one complaint about the book was the focus on the hippie doctor that runs their wellness department. The author seemed to spend more time on him than needed, and truthfully, I wonder how many other chains even employ someone like him. It seemed a little over done, but otherwise the book was wonderful.

I would recommend this book to any foodie who wants to know where their food comes from or the general reader who is curious about the operation of the grocery store they shop at on a regular basis.

18 people found this helpful

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Eric Mayforth

Superb Examination of the Grocery Business

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 11, 2017

Verified Purchase

In the United States grocery stores are so commonplace that we generally take them for granted and rarely think about them and just how important they are. Michael Ruhlman grew up in Cleveland with a father who loved grocery stores, and eventually took such an interest in them himself that he wrote "Grocery," this volume that looks at these important places from just about every angle.

Ruhlman discusses some of the history of the retail food business going back more than a century. Twentieth-century giant A&P rose and eventually fell, and change in the industry has been constant—Walmart and Whole Foods have been drivers of change in recent decades. The author focuses on Heinen's, a Cleveland-area chain, and recalls their history in Northeast Ohio. "Grocery" notes how competition between stores and chains of stores affect decisions of individual grocers.

Healthy eating is en vogue in some quarters in America today, and the author describes how chains such as Heinen's make room for healthier products on their shelves to compete with other retailers. Ruhlman talks with the consultant physician for Heinen's on a trip through the store, discussing the poor eating habits of many in the last forty or so years and how they contribute to food-related illnesses, focusing much attention on the detrimental effects of excess sugar.

Ruhlman has chapters in the book about the meat, produce, and frozen foods departments, looking at the operations of each. The author also notes how food producers get their products on grocery store shelves and looks at the forces likely to change grocery stores in the near future, including the rising market for prepared foods, hydroponic farming, and the impact of Amazon.com.

The book closes by discussing the opening of a new Heinen's location in downtown Cleveland and just what the opening of a sizable grocery store can do for such an urban area. This volume even goes over how groceries should be properly bagged and debunks some of the myths about how grocers supposedly try to trick customers. "Grocery" is a thorough look at a topic some might wrongly think mundane, and those of us who worked in a grocery store at some point during high school or college would find the book an especially good read.

10 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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David Monkhouse

Interesting subject, nor very well developed from a usually outstanding and reliable food writer.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

I have read almost all of his books and this one is probably the least interesting. The research seems pretty anecdotal. Spend your money on his charcuterie book instead.

Rachelle Lafreniere

Great Product

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

great book

Mr Peter Auksi

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

Very fine book - informative and down-to-earth.