Odds are you’ve been at your local supermarket a lot this time of year as you prepare meals for the holidays.

And you may have noticed, grocery stores have come a long way from the days of the mom and pop and the corner grocer. Compared with 40 years ago, the markets where we buy our food now truly live up to the name "super."

The amount of items to be found on the shelves range from the everyday to the exotic, and we are exposed to food items we’ve never had access to before.

Michael Ruhlman is the author of "Grocery: the Buying and Selling of Food in America," and he joins us now with more on how they have changed over the years and how that has impacted our everyday lives.