Well there are endless aisles in supermarkets of miserable bread, 'tis true. Mostly of the white sliced chip butty variety (don't knock it...). But it's not true that ALL shop-bought bread is crap. I'm rather fond of Sainsbury's sourdough pavé, for example, and I love Crosta and Mollica's pane pugliese, perfect for bruschetta. A bread machine, correctly used, gives you cheaper bread that can definitely be a cut above, for sure. Of course, it's not giving you the real McCoy, the acme, the gold standard. But it's still pretty good, and it makes brilliant butties.