The real issue is people don't cook for themselves and seek out premade shelf stable offerings of what their grandparents were making from scratch decades ago. It is like knowledge has been lost.
https://www.siliconvalley.com/2025/06/26/cupertino-whole-foo...
Sure it might be possible to find that in USA as well, but its so much harder as not every store has it.
I'm not saying this is specifically the case for you, but it is remarkably common for visitors from other parts of the world to visit, go into what we consider a "convenience store", and then be confused that there's basically nothing in terms of actual groceries in there, with probably 80%+ of the "consumable" shelving devoted to snack/"junk" items.
Those stores are intended pretty much entirely for stuff people want while on the go, and the few "groceries" they stock are basically aimed at the kind of things a drunk/stoned person is craving at 3AM when nothing else is open (say, a frozen pizza), or the few things you might run out of by surprise in the morning/when about to eat and be willing to greatly overpay for being able to grab somewhere close by before your meal/schedule is ruined. (ex: milk, condiments, maybe eggs).
But that is the problem isn't it? That you have to drive so far and look on a map to find a grocery store while in Europe you can just walk for 5 minutes and find one where you can buy fresh produce. So in Europe there are these convenient grocery stores that stocks fresh produce and so on, USA not having those is what we talked about.
So sure if you define "grocery store" as a store that sells fresh produce you are right, but then there are very few grocery stores in USA which is still the problem we talked about. It is so much easier and faster to get these wares in Europe than in USA.
Approximately 92% of US households have at least one car, 59% of US households have more than one car.
The fundamental point that I am making is: Americans do not typically go to convenience stores to buy groceries, it's not even a consideration. The places most do go to buy their groceries do have fresh produce + meat and so on. They tend to just make less frequent trips and buy more at once.
Since they are getting there by car, it's also easier to buy a lot more at once.
When they get home - they also have a much larger refrigerator + freezer (possibly more than one) than is typically seen in Europe to store it in.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Block-Sharp-Cheddar-C...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Low-Moisture-Part-Ski...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Frigo-Parmesan-Cheese-Wedge-5-oz-...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tillamook-Medium-Cheddar-Cheese-B...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Swiss-Cheese-Block-8-...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Dutchmark-Smoked-Gouda-Cheese-7-o...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Castello-Gourmet-Creamy-Danish-Ha...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Kerrygold-Grass-Fed-Dubliner-Iris...
and on and on and on and on and on...
It might not be right next to the pre-shredded cheese (usually those house brand blocks of cheddar and what not are), sometimes they're in a fancier part of the deli area. But I can't think of a time I've gone to a Walmart looking for a block of cheese and not found any cheese.
Its not going to be the fanciest varieties, but once again the question was for "basics" that don't exist. Having cheddar, swiss, parmesean, gouda, etc. is having the basics.
Please provide some, or retract your claim.
Also as "an European" whatever that means, I only spent a couple of months in the US as a tourist, and had no issues finding healthy foods from leafy greens, to good meats in places like Wholefoods.
If he couldn't find it while actually living there, tells me he's not commenting in good faith.