Let’s Go to the Grocery Store—Lots to Learn, Know, and Think About

Facilitator: Kay Gillespie, kaygi2@aol.com Dates: Mondays, April 1 — May 27, 2024 Time: 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM Texts: Benjamin Lorr, The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket, Avery Publishing (2020). Available at common retail or online outlets. Additional Materials: Optional resources to be accessed via the Web; a pre-class survey will be distributed electronically Presentations: Brief commentaries will be invited and encouraged. (While expected, they are not required.) Location: Senior Center, Foxtail 2 Class limit: 20

We all have to eat, and that means we have to get groceries! Food preparation and eating are a part of our lives. Therefore, it behooves us to understand this experience because we will be more knowledgeable shoppers – and we might have more fun going to the grocery store!

Using Benjamin Lorr’s book The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket, we will consider issues such as the history of the American “supermarket,” complexities of the supply chain, the ethics of the process of getting the food to store shelves, the nature of the grocery industry, the many choices we have, issues of sustainability, and others. We will augment these considerations with discussion of our own experiences and thoughts on groceries, grocery shopping, and grocery stores.

Participants will be invited to offer 1) brief reports on their individual reactions to the chapters as we progress through the book or 2) identify the main thoughts of a chapter or 3) report on auxiliary ideas and information related to a chapter. We will also explore some experiential activities outside of class and relevant web resources. Note: You may never look at a supermarket in the same way again!