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, ...

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