The Checkout

Aldi's success is driven by operational efficiency, not market magic. In this episode, we explore Aldi's rise in the US grocery market, analyzing its low-cost, highly efficient business model rooted in post-war German austerity and modern operational excellence. Discover how Aldi's strategies are reshaping American grocery shopping amidst economic turmoil.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this in-depth interview, Stacy Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance discusses the monopolistic practices in the food industry, Amazon's dominance, and the impact of market concentration on local communities and food deserts. The conversation explores antitrust laws, corporate power, and potential policy reforms to foster competition and local self-determination.Stacy Mitchell is a writer, strategist, and policy advocate. Her work focuses on dismantling concentrated corporate power and building thriving communities and a healthy democracy. She is Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an organization that for five decades has challenged the wisdom of neoliberalism and championed local, community-oriented models — from municipal broadband to distributed solar power, community banks, family farms, and local businesses. Stacy has played a leading role in today’s growing antimonopoly movement, helping to popularize its ideas and secure its embrace by the Biden Administration. Her insights about the importance of small, independent business have shaped the thinking of a wide range of policymakers, scholars, and advocates.Stacy has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Washington Post, and many other outlets, both popular and academic. She is the author of Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses, which was named a best business book of 2007 by the American Library Association’s Booklist. In 2016, she co-authored Amazon’s Stranglehold, an influential report that “provided a road map for a new, more critical approach to the e-commerce colossus,” the New York Times noted in a profile of her in 2020. Congress cited her research on Amazon’s monopolization strategy in its investigation of Big Tech’s dominance in 2021 and her work informed the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against the company in 2023.Through her advocacy, Stacy has advanced policies that expand community self-determination and build happier, more prosperous, and more sustainable places. In 2022, the political strategy firm Baron named her to its list of the top ten “antitrust super influencers” for her role in shaping federal policymaking and discourse. She has also worked extensively at the local level, helping communities craft policies that support local entrepreneurship and vibrant commercial districts. A close collaborator of both small business leaders and progressive organizers, Stacy has co-founded many campaigns and coalitions, including Athena and Small Business Rising. She also serves on the board of the Maine Center for Economic Policy.  Stacy holds a B.A. in history from Macalester College. She lives in Portland, Maine.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rachel Krupa is the Founder of The Goods Mart, an early pioneer of the better-for-you convenience store movement and a discovery platform for emerging food and beverage brands. Known as a "Snack Curator," Rachel has spent eight years helping consumers find their next favorite product while giving emerging brands a real foothold in retail, hospitality, corporate pantries, and events.Rachel is also the Founder of Krupa Consulting, a boutique PR agency behind some of the most talked-about consumer brands of the past decade — including Thrive Market, Our Place, Khloud Protein Popcorn, goop kitchen, and Milk Bar. With 20+ years spanning retail, consumer products, and media, she has a proven track record of spotting what's next and helping brands find their audience.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this in-depth interview, grocery clerk and union organizer Edward Dupree shares insights on working at Whole Foods, the unionization campaign in Philadelphia, and tips on seasonal produce. Discover the realities of grocery work, the fight for better conditions, and how community building fuels organizing efforts.Edward Dupree is a worker at Whole Foods of almost a decade in the Produce department and an organizer with UFCW 1776 as part of the Philly Whole Foods Union and Whole Foods Workers United.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ora Wise is a Brooklyn-based chef, community organizer, cultural producer, and educator whose current work invests in community controlled and regenerative food systems. For over a decade, Ora focused on media-based education, including co-facilitating the Palestine Education Project's high school program Slingshot Hip Hop: Culture & Resistance from Brooklyn to Palestine, serving as Youth Education Director for a progressive synagogue, and co-leading the Indigenous Youth Media Delegation to Palestine. In recent years, Ora founded The Dream Cafe, an experimental cooperative pop-up restaurant in Detroit as part of the Allied Media Conference and co-produced The Asymmetrical Table, a food sovereignty dinner series in downtown Manhattan centering the cuisine and activism of Palestinian women chefs. She currently co-directs the grassroots food justice collective FIG which operates political education and food distribution programs in partnership with frontline community organizations, farmers, and chefs.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.