"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." --Douglas Adams
Not to nit-pick but I believe it's "I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space". "Drug store" is a decidedly American phrase.
When books get released in other countries they go through and change many of these locale specific things, at least they do when it's going UK -> US, I think it's less common the other way because we're already so exposed to their culture.