Grocery stores and food retail with Dr. Ricky Volpe of Cal Poly University, SLO

Dr. Ricky Volpe is a professor of agribusiness at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, where he teaches the economics of food retailing, industrial organization, and applied econometrics. In essence, Ricky teaches about grocery stores: how food is sourced, moved, valued, priced, organized, sold, and understood. It all started with a road trip he took with his girlfriend, now wife, to Walmart stores all over New England, and that’s a fascinating story. But if there’s one story that hooks you into my conversation with Ricky, it’s going to be the one about how cigarettes are responsible for the existence of Trader Joe’s.

Website: agb.calpoly.edu/directory/volpe