Tuesday, 3 November 2026

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

  • Who wins when agents do the shopping (McKinsey)
  • How retailers can reinvent the digital flywheel for agentic commerce (BCG)
  • Fraud concerns emerge over Loblaw bread price-fixing settlement payments (Globe and Mail)
  • After the codfathers (Globe and Mail)
  • Tesco agrees to sale of Czech and Slovak units to Ahold Delhaize for £1.5 billion (FT)

Monday, 2 November 2026

 Stephan's Monday Picks

  • The winners and losers of the weight-loss economy (FT)
  • Weight-loss pioneer says the food industry needs to listen (FT)
  • DoorDash to buy Instacart for $17 billion (WSJ)
  • How CEO Tony Xu led DoorDash to delivery dominance (WSJ)
  • Japanese seafood giant Umios to buy High Liner Foods for more than $800 billion (Globe and Mail)

Friday, 30 October 2026

 Stephan's Friday Picks

  • Sulphur scramble poses latest threat to global food prices (FT)
  • Inside the world of 'dark nutrition' (NYT)
  • The peculiar charms of douzhi, Beijing's fermented bean juice (FT)
  • As private equity scales up small restaurants, customers push back (NYT)
  • From the archives (2009): The taste makers (The New Yorker)

Thursday, 29 October 2026

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

  • Couche-Tard deal for Cumberland would make strategic sense, analysts say (Bloomberg)
  • Has substitution culture gone too far (Eater)
  • Barilla paid $750 million for Goodles in all-cash deal (Bloomberg)
  • How smart does my fridge need to be (FT)
  • DoorDash is in advanced talks to acquire delivery rival Instacart (WSJ)

Wednesday, 28 October 2026

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

  • Carrefour's $2 billion stock plunge shows cost of France unrest (Bloomberg)
  • Hershey, king of Halloween, wants to win all the holidays (Bloomberg)
  • Oxford Street's pedestrian revolution is finally here (FT)
  • Why so many shoppers think retailers are using AI to jack up prices (WSJ)
  • California wines don't age? Think again (FT)

Tuesday, 27 October 2026

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

  • Kroger to invest $5 billion on improving value, lowering prices (Bloomberg)
  • How Coca-Cola got burned with a $5 billion bet on Costa coffee (Bloomberg)
  • Procter & Gamble's sales offset rising fuel costs (WSJ)
  • Sainsbury's faces tough market as Britons grapple with rising costs (Bloomberg)
  • Canadian cheese was about to become the next big thing. Then came the tariffs (NYT)

Monday, 26 October 2026

 Stephan's Monday Picks

  • The new age of reading (The New Yorker)
  • How the world fell back in love with butter (The Guardian)
  • Who hacked France's supermarket fridges (The Guardian)
  • Lindt brings back former boss as steep price rises hit demand for its chocolate (FT)
  • Why it's so hard to get a reservation right now, according to a restaurateur (Food & Wine)