Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register

Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register by Ann Larson

A labor organizer takes a job at a supermarket during the pandemic and then writes about the experience. What do you think the result would be? It felt like the author already had the answers in mind before she started. The workers must organize. Right to work laws need to go away to allow it. She should disobey things from up high to favor the workers. (In one bit of humility, she did realize this was a bad option after doing it for a while.)

The author works at an anonymous corporate grocery store in Salt Lake City. Various anecdotes of the experience are covered. There are plenty of anecdotes, but they could just as well be the work of fiction. Management makes appearances here and there. Scheduling can be a challenge, with many workers quitting or even not showing up. Self-checkout machines are given a bad rap. (Workers do not have as much casual human interaction and need to walk around on their feet.) The book talks about the history of supermarkets and how they evolved. They helped cut costs and eliminated racists haggling. The author also does not like electronic store tags. (Her concern is for the ability to give different customers different prices - what about the ability to make sure the price on the shelf is always correct?) On one hand, she would like for no changes to occur in supermarkets, while on the other she would like for many changes to make workers' experience better. The stories and history are interesting, but the analysis drags on.

The Correspondent: A Novel

The Correspondent: A Novel by Virginia Evans

Sybil Van Antwerp is a retired womens loves to communicate by writing letters. This novel is a collection of letters she was written and the responses she has received. She had previously worked as an a attorney. During that time, as a woman, she thought it best to continue clerking for a judge for most of her career. Early in the novel, the judge dies and the woman rekindles some relationships. One includes the son of a man that she did not want to show mercy to, despite the man's spouse's appeals. Sybil had just suffered the death of one of her children and was not in a condition to show mercy. (Even worse, the child died in a diving accident where she was present but not paying attention.) After seeing a newspaper article about Sybil, the man wrote some seemingly anonymous negative messages to her and even came to her her house and cut off her flowers. She had guessed who he was, and wrote a letter to him in. They shared stories and she apologized and they became friends.

There are many other anecdotes where she turned seemingly negative communications to positive. Sometimes this would involve switching communication means. (For example, she had some negative letters with the new head of the University English Department. However, they hit it off well after meeting in person.) The book falls in the "feel good" genre. Even the negative things end up turning out good. While the letters are chronological, we learn a lot about her past in the communications she shares. She has struggles with relationship with her children, as well as with various senior suitors. Her eyesight is gradually fading away. The final letters are shorter and partially filled by her new partner. (He had lived nearby and they gradually built up a strong relationship.) Her death feels somewhat sudden, but it fits well in the life of a now blind woman that we know only by her letters.