I didn't mean to put pound sounds in M&S. It's just that I was far away from my screen and couldn't see. It wasn't a lame statement like "U$A" or...I don't know...there's others but I can't think of any.

But I did remember the name of this story. It wasn't Discount Tree. I don't know where I got that from. Such a place doesn't exist.

It's Home Bargains. Now, when I first encountered this store I thought it was for home furnishings. Makes sense. But no. It's part of a chain of grocery stores owned by a billionaire.

Only two in London so that's why I never saw them before. Let me view the list of stores...

http://storelocator.homebargains.co.uk/all-stores

A lot in Scotland. Good few in Birgmingham. Bristol has a lot given the size of Bristol. Quite a few in Cardiff. Only one in Edinburgh but seven in Glasgow. Chalk that up to the relative poverty of the two cities. Actually eight in Glasgow because Govan is listed seperately for some reason. That's a borrough of Glasgow. A lot in Hull. Where's that? Yeah, Northern England, as I suspected. A few in Leeds. About 25 in Liverpool. That's about one for every 10,000 people. Only three in Manchester which surprises me.

Yeah, I don't know. Seems to be a Northern England thing. Some Scotland and Wales. A smattering of Northern Ireland. Are they based in Liverpool? Yeah.

I don't know. I wouldn't go. I went to Lidl a few times and terrible products, packed full of people, and horrendous service. There's nothing good about this. I mean, it's cheap but everything else is awful. And the cheapness creates all of these problems. That's why it's packed, that's why the food is shit, and that's why the customer service is shit.

How much better to go to M&S, buy high-quality food, largely empty aisles, and people call you "sir"? And the price difference is negligible. I mean, it's not twice the price of these discount places. I'd say it's maybe 15% more expensive. But the experience is 300% better. The quality of the food is 200% better. So you spend a tiny bit more for a hugely improved product.

People don't seem to get it, though. It's all about the race to the bottom. I should also mention that the employee satisfaction at M&S or Waitrose is significantly higher than that of Home Bargains or Lidl.

Maybe for some people, a food budget increase of 15% isn't something they can do. I think that most people can swing it, though.