[mercutio2]

Come on. I’ve been to many, many small grocery stores in Western Europe.

Some had obviously old/dirty fixtures, signage, and floors, some had newer cleaner looking equipment. The average in Europe was much, much “dirtier” than Americans on average will put up with.

“Dirty” in this context means not-new-looking.

I’d much rather not pay for someone to replace things that are perfectly functional.

But many consumers (especially Americans) prefer extremely well lit, very new looking equipment.

So I think you may have this exactly wrong. Europe has much dirtier stores, because it doesn’t value cosmetic polish as much as health and cost savings.

[dmos62]

To be fair, different countries in Europe are culturally different. And, to be even fairer, what we mean by "dirty" is wildly personal, I think.