cheese

Cheese can be many things. For instance, it can be grassy, dense, sweet, salty, nutty, light, vegetal (in many variations), fruity (in many variations), funky, barnyard-ey, concise, and well you get the idea.
Cheese isn't the following: strong or mild. There's too much to a cheese's personality to sum it up so simply.
If you're shopping at a place where the cheesefolk routinely describe cheese in such a reductionist manner, then either A. they don't know cheese, or B. they don't know english. Neither is a good situation.
There are at least 300 great cheeses available to New Yorkers and they should be purchased from folks who can tell you whether they're grassy, nutty, etc. and whether they pair better with a Pinot Noir or a Riesling.
People with a binary undestanding of cheese flavor probably aren't cheese lovers and they certainly aren't doing their cheeses justice.

-MJ