I am fluent in the language of groceries. I speak POS and SOP, FIFO, and EDLP*. I believe All-In-One Enterprise is the true star of variety stores and deserves its own mention in the opening credits. My favorite Christmas song is Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Auld Lang Syne,” because unrequited love in a grocery store parking lot is the best kind of love. And I can’t help but feel that East of Eden is as much a story about the advent of the modern grocery as it is a biblical allegory. I mean, how can you have a produce department without a cold supply chain? (Admittedly, the phrase “cold supply chain” rarely, if ever, appears in Steinbeck’s work.)

* 
POS: Point of sale
SOP: Standard operating procedure
FIFO: First in first out
EDLP: Everyday low price