Stephan's Friday Picks

• The robotic grocery store of the future (MIT Technology Review)
• Convenience stores boom as Korea's households change (Bloomberg)
• Is bigger better (Robin Report)
• As it marks 50 years in Canada, McDonalds fights to shed junk food image (Globe and Mail)
• The retail winners and losers of 2016 (Retail Dive)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Burger King, Tim Hortons aim to curb antibiotics in chicken supply (Financial Post)
• The world's biggest food company makes the case for its avant-garde human diet (Quartz)
• Why we're seeing so many corporate scandals (HBR)
• Setting value, not price (MQ)
• The mystery of the rude waiter (Slate)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Why your company needs data translators (MIT SMR)
• Fat-free is out. Gluten-free is in (Bloomberg)\
• How breakfast cereal got its sugar fix (Globe and Mail)
• How one huge American retailer ignored the internet and won (Bloomberg)
• BP agrees to buy Woolworths fuel business for $1.29 billion (WSJ)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The real reason grocery stores are running out of whipped cream this Christmas (Washington Post)
• Agricultural officials to suspend controversial chicken pricing benchmark (WSJ)
• The long of Product 19, the most beloved cereal you've never heard of (Slate)
• France is going to let drones start delivering the mail (Recode)
• Fred's rides to the rescue (Gadfly)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Stop chasing the wrong kind of growth (HBR)
• Perception beats reality in pricing (Bain)
• UPS takes a stake in retailing return specialist Optoro (WSJ)
• Coca-Cola's new CEO needs to think bigger (Business Insider)
• Whole Foods slammed for $8 chopped cheese (Eater)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The Power of Six: a framework to help brands with their pricing strategy (Kantar)
• What executives get wrong about cybersecurity (MIT SMR)
• FedEx plays hardball with retailers as profits get squeezed (WSJ)
• The power of omnichannel stores (Bain)
• Department stores are losing in beauty, too (Gadfly)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Customer loyalty is overrated (HBR)
• How H&M is trying to counteract fast fashion with revolutionary recycling (Fast Company)
• Wal-Mart looks to blockchain for produce, pork tracking (Retail Dive)
• Vive la Madeleine (HBS)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Quinoa is the new Big Mac (New Yorker)
• Millennials are fine without fabric softener; P&G looks to fix that (WSJ)
• China's convenient battleground (Gadfly)
• The case for taxing sugar, not soda (WaPo)
• Processed food brands look for fresh makeover (WSJ)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Sobeys owner reports 'very disppointing' quarter as struggles grow (Globe and Mail)
• Simpler is (sometimes) better. Managing complexity in consumer goods (MQ)
• 10 innovations that could disrupt grocery in 2017 (Retail Dive)
• A shortcut to figuring out what consumers value (CMO)
• The Paleo diet may need a rewrite, ancient humans feasted on a wide variety of plants (Smithsonian)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Mondelez jumps on reports of possible Kraft Heinz takeover (Bloomberg)
• Costco to open first business centre in Canada - a move that could "devastate" wholesale distributors (Financial Post)
• Retailers' discounts run deeper this holiday season (WSJ)
• Profit sharing boosts employee productivity and satisfaction (HBR)
• McKesson to sell 28 stores to win approval for Rexall takeover (CBC)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Stop letting quarterly numbers dictate your strategy (HBR)
• Nordstrom tries to cut down on holiday returns with e-gifts (Bloomberg)
• The medical origins of seltzer (The Atlantic)
• Costco's most disappointing product in 2016 was its store credit cards (Business Insider)
• Trouble in store (Bain)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Pepsico wants to sell healthy food, consumers want chips (WSJ)
• Lowe's Canada to convert 40 Rona big-box stores starting in early 2017 (Globe and Mail)
• Customer expectations are outpacing experience (Accenture)
• Trash talk (Robin Report)
• Processor of the year: General Mills (Food Processing)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• How display design impacts what you buy (K@W)
• Is sugar killing us (WSJ)
• Sears gambles on groceries as losses more than double (Toronto Star)
• L.A. prosecutors are accusing four big retailers of tricking customers (LA Times)
• Nordstrom's $85 rocks are a stone-cold hit (Retail Dive)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The age of analytics: Competing in a data-driven world (MQ)
• How big-box retailers weaponize old stores (Bloomberg)
• Keep calm and manage disruption (MIT SMR)
• Why Canadian lobster has become unaffordable to most Canadians (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon's 1997 Shareholder Letter (Amazon)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• A blueprint for the future of food (NYT)
• Silicon Valley stumbles in world beyond software (WSJ)
• Goldman Sachs leads funding round for Toronto-based consumer products platform Hubba (Globe and Mail)
• Will meal kits disrupt the food supply chain like e-commerce did for retail (Food Dive)
• Sanofi must pick its battle (Gadfly)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Only Amazon could make checkout-free grocery shopping a reality (Wired)
• Making self-checkout work: Learning from Albertsons (Forbes)
• Dollar General, Walmart even in Kantar opening price point study (PG)
• Millennials just aren't that into Pepsi or Coca-Cola (Fortune)
• Is Lidl's biggest strength marketing (Kantar)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Amazon working on several different grocery formats, could open more than 2000 stores (WSJ)
• Inside Costco: The magic in the warehouse (Fortune)
• Big capital is hampering entrepreneurialism (Dialogue Review)
• Big food battles meal-kit startups for dinner-in-a-box (WSJ)
• How to throw the ultimate wine-and-cheese party using the miracle of data (WaPo)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• How humans became consumers: A history (The Atlantic)
• Building a better customer insight capability (BCG)
• The most (and least) empathetic companies, 2016 (HBR)
• In new lawsuit, Instacart shoppers say they were regularly underpaid (Ars Technica)
• Inside Frank Stronach's plan to put a grass-fed steak on every plate (Canadian Business)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Nestle scientists find way to cut sugar by 40% (Bloomberg)
• The downside to full board independence (MIT SMR)
• Wells Fargo formally separates chairman, CEO roles (WSJ)
• Big food faces annihilation if it doesn't move with millennials on health (The Guardian)
• CPG: The post-replenishment challenge (Forbes)
• The grocery chain that became Africa's biggest retailer by betting on its middle class (Quartz)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The sales practices of Europe's leading consumer-goods companies (MQ)
• Albertsons in advanced talks to buy Price Chopper (Reuters)
• Palm oil: Global brands profiting from child and forced labor (Amnesty International)
• Longo's big bet on online grocery shopping (Toronto Star)
• Online or traditional advertising: What's better for brands (Bain)