BBQ chocolate dip anyone? Thanxx, but no thanxx TK Maxx

TK Maxx store on Kensington High Street (Alamy)

TK Maxx was to blame for my worst outfits while growing up near the Lewisham branch. Miles of cut-price "designer" clobber by unheard-of labels, where every other Wetherspoon's-ready shirt seemed to be made by Lambretta, who I thought did scooters.

But the chain has evidently flourished since I stopped going. Once denied entry to Piccadilly Circus for being "not posh enough" (a joke to anyone who knows the place), TK Maxx has become a fixture of the smartest high streets. Prince Harry popped in to the Kensington store in London the other day for a hoodie.

Now it's branching out further, with dedicated food sections, each grandly to be called an "emporium". But while getting deals on a lorry load of surplus Fred Perry plimsolls works OK, how will the model translate for groceries? There are already clues, it turns out. I visited the Prince Harry branch to find an already limited and, frankly, bizarre selection of stuff. Arranged not very temptingly beside the checkout queue, they included: one-litre bottles of "mango margarita mixer"; a large vase of peaches in syrup; peri-peri marinade; fudge; a "BBQ chocolate dip" in a disposable foil tray; and two different types of red velvet cupcake baking kits.

The chain may yet clarify its strategy, but I suspect the big supermarkets are safe for now...