Cheap, cheerful and booming: the Australian stores selling food at huge discounts

Grant Miles at the Cheaper Buy Miles store in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick. The discount concept has become so popular he has recently opened a fourth shop. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

Grant Miles has rarely seen so much demand for discounted food in the 30 years since he opened his first Cheaper Buy Miles store in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray.

“There are days we can’t fit any more people through the door,” Miles says.