We're talking biscuits, crisps, sauces, and the kinds of pantry staples that British transplants usually have to order online or beg visiting relatives to smuggle in their luggage. For a city where a single jar of imported Marmite can run you $9 at a specialty shop, finding it at Grocery Outlet prices is basically striking gold.

This is actually a great example of what happens when the market works without anyone's help. No city program. No cultural initiative grant. No Board of Supervisors resolution declaring it "British Heritage Grocery Month." Just a discount retailer doing what discount retailers do — snapping up surplus inventory and passing the savings on to consumers. It's the beautiful, unglamorous engine of free enterprise at work, and it's making people happy.