Photos to accompany "Is the Supermarket Done For?"

That's the print headline, anyway.

What’s New in the Supermarket? A Lot, and Not All of It Good.  (The New York Times, 5/16/2017)

Mr. [Michael] Ruhlman is the author of several books, most of them about cooking and chefs. He loves grocery stores and rarely passes up the chance to check out an unfamiliar one. It’s a predilection he ascribes to his father, Rip Ruhlman, who did the food shopping for the family and who makes frequent appearances in his son’s latest book, “Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America” (Abrams).

All photos by Retiring Guy

“Our food is making us sick,” he said. “Here we have candy bars masquerading as cereal bars — no wonder we’re confused by our food.”  (Woodman's offers a huge selection.")

He picked up a Special K Caramel Coconut Chewy Snack Bar. “You think Special K is healthy because it tastes so bad,” Mr. Ruhlman said. “But one of these has seven grams of sugar in it, meaning it’s 25 percent sugar.”

That brought us to the cereal aisle, which Mr. Ruhlman considers the worst in the grocery store; one chapter in his book is titled “Breakfast: The Most Dangerous Meal of the Day.”

A few aisles over, Perfect Size for One, a new Duncan Hines mix that makes a single cupcake in a mug using a microwave, caught his eye, first for its sugar content (35 grams) and then as an example of how supermarkets are trying to reach younger consumers. (Surprisingly, I didn't find the Perfect Size for One, just the Perfect Size offering.  The package includes a 6-inch cake pan and frosting.)