Was thinking about this too. Have you seen what's in you're local stores & how does it measure up to how you last saw them?
an incredible lack of variety almost everywhere, including the whole foods, krogers, and publix almost everywhere. there are some places like the Whole Foods of Watefront in DC that have a selection about as good as any grocer in Europe.
What Americans don't understand about this, and the reason why they become so passionately angry about this topic, is that yes - you can go to Publix and find a cheese carousel. It will have a lot of cheese. "Look, here is a lot of cheese! I see Cheddar, Cheddar with a bunch of shit added, some goat cheese, white cheddar, white cheddar with jalepenos..." and it's like a list of maybe 6 or so cheeses and then those same cheeses blended with additives. The main thing is that there's quite a few (more than just bagged, pre-shredded cheddar) and a lot of it.
In Europe, every single region of the entire continent has a specialty cheese. Some of them have dozens of specialty cheeses. This creates a huge variety that span a multi-dimensional range covering things like texture, softness, mold, sharpness, etc. There is basically a cheese in Europe that sits in every conceivable position on that multi-dimensional spectrum. If you are from a place, you buy local cheese. If you are a gourmand that needs something special for a dish, you can find it.
As a result, people have tasted quite a few cheeses and they have favorites. Their mom always fed them Limburger growing up so that's their favorite. There is no Limburger in the US. You get Brie or Camembert. Those are the soft cheeses in the US. If you want a soft cheese, you will eat Brie or Camembert.
One time I was at a market and there was a guy from Norway there. He was selling cheese wheels. It was a specialty cheese, made in Norway, specifically by his town, which his family had made for hundreds of years. I bought a huge chunk of a wheel and ate it over two weeks. It was very good, and not like anything I've ever had before. You can find people like him everywhere in Europe. There is one (1) state in the US that is known for making cheese, and because that state has to appeal to the taste preferences of the slovenly American public that mostly enjoys "taco cheese", that means Wisconsin is the home of the Cheddar Heads.