" Cleanup On Aisle Five is a valuable front-line look at 'essential work' and the people who do it. As insightful as it is fun to read, you'll never look at the checkout line the same way again." --Malcolm Harris, bestselling author of Palo Alto "Ann Larson's Cleanup on Aisle Five is a striking, you-are-there account of the struggle to survive - and survive on--a low wage job in today's America. This cash-register-eye view account of the perils and the occasional pleasures of retail work shines, full of unexpected details about laboring in the places many manage not to see (how difficult it is to herd shopping carts, for example). This is a cruel moment in history: Larson's political and moral refinement and scholarly interpretations are restorative. Born blue collar and trained as an academic, Larson is part of a longer legacy of 'class defectors.' A notable entry in the canon of working-class literature." -- Alissa Quart, author of Squeezed and Bootstrapped , Executive Director, Economic Hardship Reporting Project "If you have ever been irritated by long lines at the grocery counter or an overly complicated self-checkout machine, Ann Larson's eye-opening account of her supermarket sojourn explains the reasons why.

It's not some technical glitch, but a work regime that oppresses the soul and damages the bodies of a low-paid, rapid-turnover set of very human men and women. Larson's account of worklife immiseration near the bottom of the class hierarchy will take its place with the classic accounts once offered by Barbara Ehrenreich, Michael Harrington, and George Orwell." --Nelson Lichtenstein, author of The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business "A riveting, anecdotal report from the front lines of retail. Larson gives us eye-opening insights into the factories of our consumer society that we call supermarkets, while reminding us that wherever there is harm and disrespect for workers, there is also solidarity." --Andrew Ross, author of Bird on Fire and Fast Boat to China.