Having grown up in the States and lived in London for nearly seven years, I have to agree.
It's not that UK supermarkets don't have choice, it's that US supermarkets are spoiled for choice. I mean, I went back home and saw a WALL of bread, and a long aisle where half was just cans of soup! For me, it's not just the difference between 10 different SKUs of peanut butter and 50+, but US stores seem to have much more stock of each SKU, too.
Tesco's one of the world's most profitable retailers (I think it's #4 globally) and ASDA is a subsidiary of Wal-Mart. London's just a special case - where do you put an out-of-town superstore in zones 1 or 2 of the Tube map?
I wouldn't mind if they were in zones 4 or 5, but it still doesn't add much choice. Tesco Extra stores aren't exactly small, but they still don't have much choice in the grocery side.
If a different store had the range, I'd go there instead. But each store targeting a slice of the demographic pie has very much the same limited range with a tiny bit of diversity outside of store brands.
It's not that UK supermarkets don't have choice, it's that US supermarkets are spoiled for choice. I mean, I went back home and saw a WALL of bread, and a long aisle where half was just cans of soup! For me, it's not just the difference between 10 different SKUs of peanut butter and 50+, but US stores seem to have much more stock of each SKU, too.
That said, YMMV.