On the other hand, as John says, most "bigger than corner shop" type convenience stores are utterly crap. The small ones, in my experience of Leeds and Oxford, are pretty good, but they tend to be tiny: somewhere to get wine, the odd onion, coffee etc. from. Once you get up to a larger size, they really start to suck (think about the horror that is the Co-op).

It’s a bit like Starbucks, Nero etc. They, again, don’t treat their workers very well, and open more shops than the market can support, deliberately to close down the competition. But I do rather like the fact that I can now get a decent cup of coffee in most towns, railway stations etc. Beats what many British cafes seem to think is a reasonable approximation to coffee…

And last time I checked, Aberdeenshire was in Scotland; ho hum.

You also have your facts wrong. Tesco Express prefabricated stores are made in York, not in Scotland. They are cheap, tacky and downright ugly.

It is a tragedy that due to the Big 4 small shopkeepers are daily going out of business. It is a tragedy that entrepreneurs can’t go into business because of the anti-competitive behaviour of tesco Express and Sainsbury local i.e. When a tescoi express recently opened in the Clerkenwellarea in London, they got their staff to walk into other peoples shops with banners luring customers away.

Who the hell in their right mind does that? well tossco of course.,