$4 a gallon and you think you've got some complaining to do? Try £1.40 a litre for diesel in UK (£7 a gallon, OK we get bigger gallons than you, but still over $10 a gallon).

Don't seem to get much conversation at check-outs over here - there's a standard query "Do you need any help with your packing?" whether you've got one item or twenty, and whether you're aged twenty or ninety. Bags are reluctantly offered (or have to be paid for in Aldi, Lidl and others) if you have forgotten to bring back your "Bag for Life" which you paid for last time. Pressure of queues building up behind you means the staff aren't likely to hold things back for pleasantries. Head down, "Beep, beep, beep" is the order of the day.

And the Safeway name, which survived here for a number of years after a UK management buy-out, has disappeared following the take-over by Morrisons a few years back.

Ross