On 04 Nov 2004, Peter Parry wrote that "Mary Fisher"wrote that Peter
Parry wrote;

-snip-

The grocers sold a limited range of time expired

? There weren't sell-by dates then.

Indeed not, but as one of my holiday jobs (while studying A Level
Biology) was scraping green slime off bacon for a local butcher to
sell to a captive audience it didn't require too much skill to
know it was well beyond one had it existed.

low quality produce and the bakers sold bread you could sink a
battleship with.

Not true - again in my experience. I think you've been very
unfortunate.

No, merely widely experienced.

I have the same feeling about the tears shed over big bookstore chains
knocking out traditional small independent bookshops -- "they just want
to shift blockbusters; no interest in books as books; don't know
what's published or isn't published".

My experience of them was that common-and-garden small bookshops had a
limited range of poorly-displayed titles, knew bugger all about
anything outside particular hobby-horses of the owners, and relied on
the publishers' price-fixing cartel to make a living -- not, as
now claimed, to underwrite their "specialist stock and knowledge".

I don't lose any sleep over the closure of small bookshops.

--
Cheers,
Harvey