A closer look
In the mid-90s, British grocers got locked into a discounting war so deeply petty that it defied basic mathematics. Supermarkets like Tesco, Asda, and Sainsbury’s kept undercutting each other on staple items. It escalated until the price of a can of baked beans dropped from 16p to minus two pence. Store managers were literally giving away cash with every can purchased just to spite their rivals. Unsurprisingly, opportunists bought out entire pallets before corporate executives finally stopped the madness.
