Class at the Grocery Store: Analyzing “People Like Us”
While there were many interesting moments in the PBS documentary People Like Us what stood out to me most was the story of the town in Vermont where the community was embattled about what kind of grocery store would serve the community and what kind of food would be available at that grocery store. As the documentary represents the conflict within this community, it becomes clear to the audience how something as simple as what food one chooses to put into one’s grocery cart is influenced by social class, and it really inspires the audience to think about their own choices of what food to eat communicate and reflect their own class status. I think that viewers of this documentary should pay special attention to this moment because it really gets to the heart of how pervasive class distinctions are in contemporary American culture, and it shows that even something as simple as the food one enjoys can mark one as being of a lower or higher class status. (more…)