Costco, Croydon, London

Flippin’ huge warehouse of cash & carry stuff that carries an impressively wide range of goods, with varying discounts on the prices you would see on the high street (or even online). You need to sign up (and pay) to be a member to shop here - you qualify for membership if you run or manage a business, or if you work in a certain profession, e.g. bean-counting.

Check out the Costco website to see the full list of types of stuff they sell, but suffice to say you could drive up here and leave your car to get its tyres changed, then go inside to get your photos developed while you take your massive trolley round the store, filling it with a MacBook Pro, an electronic piano, a vacuum cleaner, a platter of sushi, and a rump of lamb. If the car’s not quite done, sit down and get yourself a pizza or pie at the in-store cafe.

While the variety of stuff available is impressive, the range on offer can be limited, so don’t expect to find absolutely everything here. For example, there were only a couple of Wii games on offer during my visit - Mario Kart and Guitar Hero World Tour.

Probably the best discounts on offer are in the fresh meat department. The beef and lamb are British, although Costco could probably do more to provide more information on the provenance of the meat, since the initial assumption is that cheap meat can only have come from badly treated livestock.