What is up with the steak here??

Oh, the meat here is often pumped up with water, so it flattens out a lot. Thats my theory.

That was my first thought about the OP's steak.

When I worked in a restaurant we used to actually wrap our huge ribeye slabs in clingfilm to help them keep their shape (think the shape of a sausage) and then we'd slice off a steak and unwrap it before cooking.  This is done because it helps keep everything together better, but even though they would start out nice and thick and not very wide, they'd inevitably spread.  This is probably what's been going on with the ones you're buying. 
Solution: nothing really.  Try to buy steaks that are thicker and not so wide across so that you'll end up with something less like a pancake.  Talk to your butcher and ask them what they recommend, trust me they aren't going to laugh at you.  They are FULL of knowledge and are willing to share!  That being said you need to make sure the butcher you go to is a quality one who slices their own meats.  Good luck!

Well, we had a couple of rib-eyes last night on the BBQ. They were great. We try to buy them fairly thick with some good marbling on them. I've never had the problem with them flattening out that I've noticed. I'll have to pay closer attention. Hubby is a HUGE steak lover so we have it at least once a week. I tend to go to the butcher here in our village as the prices are pretty good and when we get steak from Morrisons its SO tough. I do notice the beef tastes very different here (even the mince) but I don't think it tastes bad. I just hate paying so much for a steak and it being a bad cut. I've yet to get the guts up to try cooking rump. I know if you get a bad one or don't cook it properly, you may as well cook up shoe leather and eat it.

Good steak should be hung for 21 to 28 days after being butchered  to allow the enyzmes to break down the fibres and make the meat tender, and allow some of the moisture to leave the meat,  concentrating the flavour.

Most bog standard supermarket meat will probably be on the slab within a couple of days of the beast being butchered. In the last few years supermarkets have started selling 28 day hung beef as a premium product. The thing to do is find a good independent butcher and ask him how long he hangs his beef for. As others have said all the flavour is in the fat, so a good steak needs fat or marbling to get the most flavour out of it.

There are abattoirs in nearly every medium sized town in the UK, so the potential to get meat on the slab without maturing  has been the common system used by supermarkets, especially for the cheaper Saver brands. The distances involved in transporting beef from Argentina or from a beef producing state to a non beef producing state in the US, will  require the beef to be chilled, this effectively is the same as a butcher hanging his beef, and allows the beef to be transported for upto 90 days from slaughter I believe.

If you want a good steak , don't buy supermarket budget lines, find a good independent butcher that hangs his meat, and don't cut off the fat. Simples!!

Jack, good advice. We finally got the new cooker/range, so I will try a steak from the butcher.

I also ran across this link, which shows the differences in UK vs. US cuts of meat:
http://tinyurl.com/8muxfrv

Can't say the thought of "clod" appeals to me much!

Aldi does a beautiful rib eye steak that's ages and it's £4 for a nice sized steak, worth a try!

Really? We'll have to give it a try! We went to Aldi a month or two ago but didn't see anything we were very keen on.