Best of Pax Westona: December 2017

• CVS to buy Aetna for $69 billion in a deal that may reshape the health industry (NYT)
• How Dollar General became America's store of choice (WSJ)
• How Amazon picks its seemingly random deals of the day (WSJ)
• Lidl pursuing smaller sites (Winsight Grocery Business)
• Sobeys to join discount rivals in Western Canada with FreshCo launch (Globe and Mail)
• Loblaw admits to bread price-fixing scheme spanning more than 14 years (Globe and Mail)
• Subscription businesses are booming (HBR)
• Despite industry efforts, Americans keep drinking in the sugar (WSJ)
• In Asia's fattest country, nutritionists take money from food giants (NYT)
• Tesco boss declares war on food waste crisis (The Telegraph)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The retail winners and losers of 2017 (Retail Dive)
• How do you compare? (Blue Mountain Capital)
• When to decentralize decision making and when not to (HBR)
• Grocerants (Robin Report)
• From the archives: Rob McEwan takes command at Sobeys (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• In Asia's fattest country, nutritionists take money from food giants (NYT)
• A $17 billion dilemma for Reckitt's CEO (Gadfly)
• $1B class action lawsuit filed against Loblaws for bread price fixing (CBC)
• Tesco boss declares war on food waste crisis (The Telegraph)
• Lotte chief gets suspended prison sentence; free to run firm (Reuters)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Despite industry efforts, Americans keep drinking in the sugar (WSJ)
• Is that champagne in your sorbet? Prove it (NYT)
• Save-On-Foods offers gift card following Loblaw bread controversy (Globe and Mail)
• Home Depot has considered buying a $9 billion logistics company so Amazon doesn't (Recode)
• The 25 biggest food news stories of 2017 (Food and Wine)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Walmart is developing a personal-shopping service for rich moms - and a store with no cashiers (Recode)
• 2017 was the year of retail's existential reckoning (Quartz)
• Get ready for a meatless meat explosion, as Big Food gets on board (Fast Company)
• Tencent to buy part of supermart chain in rare retail foray (Bloomberg)
• Subscription business are booming (HBR) 

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• How large food retailers can help the food waste crisis (HBR)
• Marks & Spencer is first supermarket to publish data on antibiotics in supply chain (The Guardian)
• How Best Buy is winning against all odds (Retail Dive)
• Warehouse boom continues, sector poised for more growth in 2018 (Curbed)
• How Harry & David cornered the market on pricey mail-order pears (Eater)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Loblaw admits to bread price-fixing scheme spanning more than 14 years (Globe and Mail)
• How retailers can thrive in the age of Amazon (WSJ)
• Peak subscription box has arrived (Gadfly)
• Hershey to acquire Skinny Pop owner for $921 million (Bloomberg)
• Greenyard targets U.S. market with talks to acquire Dole Foods (Reuters)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Inside the home of Instant Pot, the kitchen gadget that spawned a religion (NYT)
• A new algorithm helps retailers make better inventory decisions (MIT)
• Grocers absorb rise in food prices to keep customers from straying (WSJ)
• Campbell Soup to buy snacks maker Snyder's-Lance for $4.87 billion (Reuters)
• Toys 'R' Us closing stores would open doors for rivals (Gadfly)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Reminding e-commerce customers who delivers (NYT)
• Dutch-Belgian supermarket to battle Amazon on two fronts (Reuters)
• A retrofit for America's dying malls (WSJ)
• Unilever sells household name spreads to KKR for £6bn (The Guardian)
• Using stores as assets (L2)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Target to buy Shipt for $550 million in challenge to Amazon (Bloomberg)
• How much food do we waste? Probably more than you think (NYT)
• Beyond Meat is tripling production of its plant-based burgers (Quartz)
• Walmart will let its 1.4 million workers take their pay before payday (NYT)
• From the archives: How Sobeys is taking on Loblaws (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Sobeys to join discount rivals in Western Canada with FreshCo launch (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon isn't a lock to dominate grocery (Gadfly)
• Meal kits grow into $120-million industry in Canada (Globe and Mail)
• Kellogg is going all in on cereal cafes (Bloomberg)
• Amazon has more private label brands than you think (L2)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Lidl pursuing smaller sites (Winsight Grocery Business)
• Meat tax is inevitable to beat climate and health crises, says report (The Guardian)
• The Amazon-Whole Foods deal is turning out to be good for grocery start-ups (Bloomberg)
• Saigon beer, an unacquired taste (Gadfly)
• Kroger is challenging Amazon in advertising (Quartz)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How Amazon picks its seemingly random deals of the day (WSJ)
• How analytics and AI are driving the subscription e-commerce phenomenon (MIT SMR)
• Study: Nutrition ratings can boost sales for grocers (Food Dive)
• Technology innovation isn't just for tech companies (WSJ)
• The retail apocalypse is fueled by no name clothes (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Why are America's farmers killing themselves in record numbers (The Guardian)
• Where stores can still compete - and win (McKinsey)
• Shoppers need a reason to go to your store - other than buying stuff (HBR)
• The beast of Bentonville battles Amazon (The Economist)
• Robots will transform fast food (The Atlantic)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Food-makers are taking salt and sugar out of food. But they're adding fat (Washington Post)
• Toblerone vs. Poundland (NYT)
• The inflated promise of the American food hall (The New Yorker)
• This doughnut and biscuit chain is about to be everywhere (Eater)
• From the archives: The last days of Target (Canadian Business)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• How Dollar General became rural America's store of choice (WSJ)
• Death of retail? 2017 was all about the empire of luxury e-tail (NYT)
• Robot vineyard worker impresses at Clerc Milon (Decanter)
• Paul Polman: How I fended off a hostile takeover bid (FT)
• There are 170,000 fewer retail jobs in 2017 - and 75,000 more Amazon robots (Quartz)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Fighting portfolio complexity (McKinsey)
• How the US military helped invent Cheetos (Wired)
• The big Washington food fight (Politico)
• Campbell's is testing online delivery (Bloomberg)
• With sriracha and wasabi, this Indian startup is giving the humble popcorn a gourmet makeover (Quartz)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The woman who mentored 13 CEOs (Quartz)
• A new class of startup is upending America's consumer goods industry (The Economist)
• Walmart already has a successful online grocery business- in China (Bloomberg)
• This robot handles the entire process of growing lettuce by itself (Fast Company)
• Blue Apron's problems are too big for any CEO (Gadfly)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• CVS to buy Aetna for $69 billion in a deal that may reshape the health industry (NYT)
• Buffett's Fruit of the Loom gets into the subscription game (Bloomberg)
• How the mall business can reinvent itself for the digital age (McKinsey)
• A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm (Washington Post)
• The secret to Hampton Creek's new vegan egg is the mung bean (Quartz)

Best of Pax Westona: November 2017

• Aldi and Lidl grow despite ignoring the internet (The Economist)
• The gospel according to Michael Porter (Institutional Investor)
• A dozen lessons from Waffle House (25iq)
• How Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Amazon learn from failure (HBR)
• The rise of the highly skilled retail worker (Time)
• The moves mainstream grocers must make now (BCG)
• The future of retail in the age of Amazon (Fast Company)
• How the sandwich consumed Britain (The Guardian)
• Predicting success in consumer startup brands (Tech Crunch)
• How chefs go from restaurant kitchen to grocery store brand (Eater)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The sun never set on the British Empire, or its food (NYT)
• Maybe Kroger can survive Amazon after all (Gadfly)
• Amazon is so good at keeping prices low, it's changing how economists think about inflation (Quartz)
• Jean Coutu says farewell after shareholders approve sale to Metro (Globe and Mail)
• Why shoppers ditch retail stores for online in their twenties (Quartz)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Ocado unveils tie-up with France's Groupe Casino (FT)
• Ocado found a grocery deal, not the second coming (Gadfly)
• Retail jobs don't need to be bad. Here's proof (NYT)
• Produce or else: Walmart and Kroger get tough with suppliers on delays (WSJ)
• How chefs go from restaurant kitchen to grocery store brand (Eater)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• This robot picks up groceries its never seen before using its little suction cup (MIT Technology Review)
• Tesco's CEO is ready for his Unilever closeup (Bloomberg)
• Unilever delays choice of UK or Netherlands as sole HQ (FT)
• Predicting success in consumer startup brands (Tech Crunch)
• How closing grocery stores perpetuate food deserts long after they're gone (Fast Company)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Food banks' massive plan to shift from canned goods to fresh produce (Fast Company)
• Amazon, in hunt for lower prices, recruits Indian merchants (NYT)
• Coca-Cola embraces a digital future as consumers move online (Food Dive)
• Unilever acquires U.S. personal care company Sundial Brands (Bloomberg)
• How the sandwich consumed Britain (The Guardian)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• The future of retail in the age of Amazon (Fast Company)
• Why stand in line on Black Friday? The psychology explained (NYT)
• How La Croix's growth surprise Coca-Cola and PepsiCo (Brand Channel)
• Sobeys to lay off 800 workers across Canada (CBC)
• Conquering the food challenge through Agriculture 3.0 (Bain)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• CEOs should stop thinking that execution is somebody else's job. It's theirs (HBR)
• Alibaba's latest jab at JD.com (L2)
• Why Maryland's blue crab industry might be in trouble (Eater)
• Young and in love ... with lipstick and eyeliner (NYT)
• The future of shopping at Nordstrom and Walmart is home delivery (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Sugar industry long downplayed potential harms (NYT)
• Loblaw releases second annual Canadian food trends list (Loblaw)
• Nestle's baby food diet (Bloomberg)
• Walmart is inventing foods in a secret lab in Arkansas (Food and Wine)
• Auchan/Alibaba deal turns up the heat on Carrefour in China (Reuters)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Tofurky: A brief, semi-accidental history of Thanksgiving's fake meat (The New Yorker)
• The rise of dynamic and personalized pricing (The Guardian)
• Grocers need to look to new forecasting methods to stock the digital shelf (Food Dive)
• P&G just bought this venture-backed deodorant startup for $100 million (Tech Crunch)
• Becoming (and remaining) a farmer is hard (Civil Eats)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Loblaw pitches upgraded loyalty program for $9.99 a month for premium perks (CBC)
• Loblaw the latest to experience the 'Amazon effect' (Globe and Mail)
• The cause and consequences of the retail apocalypse (The New Republic)
• Where is all the good, quality furniture (Curbed)
• Bank of Canada: More than half of all sales still done in cash (CBC)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Loblaw orders 25 electric Tesla semi trucks (Tech Crunch)
• A Leeds polygot expanding Bezos' empire (London Evening Standard)
• Alibaba bets $2.9 billion on China's top hypermarket player (Bloomberg)
• Would you eat 'clean meat' (Quartz)
• It's  been a year since California banned single-use plastic bags. The world didn't end (LA Times)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Fight breaks out over fresh fruit-and-vegetable packaging (Bloomberg)
• Tesco's £3.7bn takeover of Booker gets the green light (The Guardian)
• Postmates launches delivery service, scheduled deliveries, and a revamped app (Tech Crunch)
• Amazon's cashier-less stores are almost ready for prime time (Bloomberg)
• Whole Foods basks in glow of Amazon's halo (Gadfly)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Loblaw plans to close 22 unprofitable stores and launch home delivery (CBC)
• The moves mainstream grocers must make now (BCG)
• The cult of Crystal hot sauce (Eater)
• NotCo created an algorithm to make mayo (The Ringer)
• Instacart adds Kroger in retail push after Amazon-Whole Foods deal (Forbes)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Four logics of corporate strategy (MIT SMR)
• Self-driving trucks may be closer than they appear (NYT)
• Budweiser's ex-marketing chief sees weed as new craft beer (Bloomberg)
• Morrisons becomes first of Big Four to integrate Alexa into online grocery (The Grocer)
• Amazon or Walmart? Some retailers are choosing alliances (Financial Post)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The rise of the highly skilled retail worker (Time)
• Alibaba's AI fashion consultant helps achieve record-setting sales (MIT Technology Review)
• Where retail has one edge on tech: Mobile payments (Gadfly)
• Private equity can still get rich from a struggling supermarket (Bloomberg)
• How Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Amazon learn from failure (HBR)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Canadian retailers dogged by aggressive U.S. rivals' online offerings (Reuters)
• Someone figured out how to put tomatoes on a blockchain (Bloomberg)
• A dozen lessons from Waffle House (25iq)
• The gospel according to Michael Porter (Institutional Investor)
• Are Honey Nut Cheerios healthy (NYT)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Uniform pricing in US retail chains (PDF)
• Can Costco convince the French to buy brie in bulk (Bloomberg)
• What Dollar Shave Club says about the future of subscription services (Retail Dive)
• Panera Bread buys Au Bon Pain, adding to JAB's breakfast empire (NYT)
• Blue Apron plummets to record low after CEO's conference comments (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Should CPG manufacturers go direct-to-consumer, and if so how (McKinsey)
• Don't fear. Amazon hasn't figured out groceries (Bloomberg)
• As wild salmon decline, Norway pressures its giant fish farms (NYT)
• French retail firm Auchan to open checkout-free shops in China (Xinhua)
• Montreal Canadiens and Loblaw found in Paradise Papers (CBC)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Loblaw to merge Shoppers Optimum and PC Plus programs in February (FP)
• Whole Foods reveals top food trends for 2018 (Whole Foods)
• Coca-Cola's next big bet may be spiffing up your cocktail mixers (Bloomberg)
• Toys R Us collapse reveals fragility of supply chain finance (FT)
• Loblaw commits to overhauling truck fleet, unveils its first fully electric big rig (Canadian Manufacturing)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Murray Koffler, founder of Shoppers Drug Mart, dead at 93 (CBC)
• Ready of not, recreational marijuana is coming to Canada (NYT)
• How many robots does it take to fill a grocery order (Bloomberg)
• Amazon adds an AR shopping feature to its iOS app (Tech Crunch)
• Amazon wants to leave packages in your home, Walmart will put groceries in your fridge (CBC)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• The future of online retailing is bright (The Economist)
• Loblaw could be stoking a new supplier showdown (Financial Post)
• Kroger wants shoppers to add clothes to their shopping list (WSJ)
• Alibaba's latest earnings suggest it can handle the pricey push into groceries and supermarkets (Quartz)
• There's a global butter boom, but supply management has Canada on the sidelines (Financial Post)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Why Americans have stopped eating leftovers (Washington Post)
• In rare feat, Kellogg and Mondelez achieve actual growth (Bloomberg)
• Global oversupply of grains puts a squeeze on giant processors (WSJ)
• Treehouse announces resignation of president and search for new CEO (Food Dive)
• GMO apples head to the Midwest (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Aldi and Lidl grow despite ignoring the internet (The Economist)
• Small group scoops international effort to sequence huge wheat genome (Nature)
• The sticky, untold story of Cinnabon (Seattle Met)
• How Miniso might just be a Dollarama disruptor in Canada (Macleans)
• Omnichannel trend reflected in executive moves (Supermarket News)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Watchdog raids offices of grocery retailers in price-fixing probe (CBC)
• What shoppers really want from personalized marketing (McKinsey)
• France, land of croissants, finds butter vanishing from its shelves (NYT)
• Alcohol industry targets pot with Constellation-Canopy deal (Bloomberg)
• Walmart testing shelf-scanning robots in 50 stores (Food Dive)

Best of Pax Westona: October 2017

• Gorilla mode: What Amazon means for the rest of us (Adventures)
• The race to save coffee (The Washington Post)
• Supersize farms are gobbling up American agriculture (WSJ)
• Dark chocolate is now a health food. Here's how that happened (Vox)
• Why surge pricing makes us so mad (The Upshot)
• Dollar General hits a gold mine in rural America (Bloomberg)
• Retailers are bottling their own milk (WSJ)
• How big consumer companies can fight back (BCG)
• US grocers count pennies as discounters wage price war (FT)
• Mayonnaise, disrupted (The Atlantic)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Sears shoppers allege retailer inflated prices for liquidation sale (CBC)
• How to deal with the know-it-all in the office (HBR)
• The 'Amazon effect' is slicing into Bayer's U.S. consumer business (Bloomberg)
• The ultimate Halloween candy power ranking (538)
• The full reset (Collaborative Fund)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Retail's secret world is the private label (Gadfly)
• Six-second ads gaining popularity as brands battle short attention spans (Globe and Mail)
• The age of Amazon and Alibaba is just beginning (The Economist)
• Inside the anything-goes world of Instagram Fast Fashion (GQ)
• There's precedent for Amazon competing with so many companies. It doesn't end well (Quartz)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Gorilla mode: What Amazon means for the rest of us (Adventures)
• This Macy's is a 'petri dish' for the brand (Racked)
• Selling products is good. Selling projects can be even better (HBR)
• Carrefour launches 'Merci Voisin' delivery service (ESM)
• Banks need to fear Amazon's finance ambitions (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Hudson Bay Company's Richard Baker speaks on his latest strategic move (BoF)
• Kindred robots are learning to grab and sort clothing in a warehouse at the Gap (MIT Technology Review)
• Big mall operator does the unthinkable - builds a mall (WSJ)
• The future of your entree is quietly growing in Memphis Meats' lab (Inc)
• The blockchain of food (Forbes)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• When are consumers most likely to feel overwhelmed by their options (Kellogg Insight)
• How climate change is playing havoc with olive oil (and farmers) (NYT)
• At Plated, the future of meal-kit services is grocery stores (Fast Company)
• Amazon rivals turn to fine print to stem Whole Foods strategy (Reuters)
• Halo Top melts market share away from Unilever (Food Dive)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• A showdown brews between Amazon and Alibaba, far from home (NYT)
• Global customer and channel management: What the best CPG companies do (McKinsey)
• The race to save coffee (The Washington Post)
• Supersize farms are gobbling up American agriculture (WSJ)
• Defensible strategies for food tech companies facing Amazon (Tech Crunch)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• La Croix's seltzer bubble may be about to pop (Bloomberg)
• Dark chocolate is now a health food. Here's how that happened (Vox)
• Walmart ramps up self checkout by letting customers ring in items while shopping (CBC)
• Technical interviews are garbage. Here's what we do instead (Medium)
• What cities fighting for an Amazon headquarters can learn from Seattle (Curbed)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How office politics corrupts the search for high potential employees (HBR)
• Walmart's Store No. 8 showcases the future of VR (Food Dive)
• Nestle speeds up restructuring as sales growth set to weaken (FT)
• Unilever's ice cream plan to keep Warren Buffet licked (Gadfly) 
• Danny Meyer's restaurant's servers say they're paid less after no tipping (Eater)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Kroger unveils plan to invest in technology, store resets (Supermarket News)
• Peltz lost P&G vote by less than 1% margin (FT)
• Hudson's Bay gets hammered after Nordstrom puts off privatization plan (Financial Post)
• The downfall of rosewater, once America's favourite flavour (Atlas Obscura)
• Danone CEO will take on chairman role (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Kimbal Musk wants to feed America, Silicon Valley-style (NYT)
• Google is building an anti-Amazon alliance, and Target is the latest to join (Recode)
• Alphabet's Project Wing drones will deliver burritos in Australia (The Verge)
• Newark says, Hey Amazon, look over here (NYT)
• Why Wegmans is America's best supermarket chain (Food and Wine)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Kitchen of the future: Smart and fast but not much fun (NYT)
• Why surge pricing makes us so mad (The Upshot)
• Jeff Wilke: The Amazon chief that obsesses over customers (WSJ)
• John Mackey: Marriage to Amazon has been challenging as cultures mesh (Food Dive)
• Loblaw to lay off 500 office staff in drive to cut costs (CBC)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Dollar General hits a gold mine in rural America (Bloomberg)
• How Unilever won over shareholders with its long-term approach (Globe and Mail)
• Retailers are bottling their own milk (WSJ)
• An alternate universe of shopping, in Ohio (NYT)
• The value of raising the threshold of crappiness (The Spectator)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How big consumer companies can fight back (BCG)
• Walmart wants to break into the Ivy League recruiting circuit (Bloomberg)
• From catalogues to collapse: The history of Sears Canada (Toronto Star)
• Metro aims to cut 280 jobs in five years as part of plans to modernize (CBC)
• Kroger must admit its Amazon problem (Gadfly)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The Hello Fresh food revolution (Bloomberg)
• US grocers count pennies as discounters wage price war (FT)
• Brussels declares war on supermarkets (Politico)
• Why retailers should retire holiday season (HBR)
• Nelson Peltz loses P&G proxy vote (Gadfly)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Lidl stores gain little traction so far in U.S. (WSJ)
• From trash to table (Globe and Mail)
• Costco announced it would deliver groceries. Then it stock fell 6%. (Washington Post)
• Enjoy a tall, frosty beverage named by a neural network (Atlas Obscura)
• Sears Canada going out of business, laying off 12,000 (Toronto Star)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• American retailers have a new target customer: 26-year-olds (WSJ)
• Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, Heineken's CEO, on its M&A strategy (FT) 
• GM apples that don't brown to hit US shelves this fall (MIT Technology Review)
• A battle for the future of big brands (WSJ)
• Walmart puts its eggs in a time-saving basket: Grocery pickup (NYT)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How AI will change strategy: A thought experiment (HBR)
• What's the biggest food delivery service in each US city (Recode)
• Another thing Amazon is disrupting: Business school recruiting (WSJ)
• Sears Canada moves closer to liquidation as Stranzl bid falters (Globe and Mail)
• Pepsi makes a bigger online bet after Amazon rattles grocery industry (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Tesco profit overstatement prompted 'tears and resignations' (FT)
• Nestle can head off a fight with Dan Loeb (NYT)
• Dear Olive Garden, never change (Eater)
• Amazon is eyeing these grocery stores in France for possible deals (Fortune)
• Silicon Valley's next target for disruption is socks (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How grocers can learn from the UK as the industry undergoes a massive structural shift (Food Dive)
• Coca-Cola acquires Topo Chico, the sparkling water for cool people (Eater)
• Amazon promised to make Whole Foods cheaper. Let's see how that's going (Washington Post)
• Walmart has acquired the logistics startup Parcel to help launch same-day delivery in New York City (Recode)
• Albertsons to raise $720 million in store sale-leaseback (Supermarket News)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Mayonnaise, disrupted (The Atlantic)
• Can anyone beat Jeff Bezos (Vanity Fair)
• Turning strategy into results (MIT SMR)
• Being too busy for friends won't help your career (HBR)
• Metro seals deal for Jean Coutu to form Quebec powerhouse (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Why Metro's 'inevitable' purchase of Jean Coutu took years to happen (CBC)
• Popcorn sales explosion makes it UK's fastest-growing grocery product (The Guardian)
• A field farmed only by drones (The New Yorker)
• Ikea enters gig economy by buying freelance labour firm TaskRabbit (The Guardian)
• Jet.com is launching a grocery brand for 'metro millennials (ReCode)

Best of Pax Westona: September 2017

• How Big Business got Brazil hooked on junk food (NYT)
• The inside story of what it took to keep a Texas grocery chain running in the chaos of Hurricane Harvey (LinkedIn)
• The lonely future of buying stuff (Bloomberg)
• How grocery giant Aldi plans to conquer America: Limit choice (WSJ)
• Nestle makes billions bottling water it pays nearly nothing for (Bloomberg)
• The grocery industry confronts a new problem: Only 10% of Americans love cooking (HBR)
• Meet the CamperForce, Amazon's nomadic retiree army (Wired)
• Behind a $13 shirt, a $6-an-hour worker (Los Angeles Times)
• Is Unilever the last good big company (Bloomberg)
• Two ex-Googlers want to make bodegas and mom-and-pop stores obsolete (Fast Company)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Loblaw exploring grocery home delivery partnership with Instacart (Globe and Mail)
• Nothing is too strange for cities trying to woo Amazon to build there (NYT)
• Nestle cedes ground to Loeb but won't budge on L'Oreal (WSJ)
• $15 minimum wage could cost 90K new jobs, but long-term outlook positive: TD (CBC)
• Has craft coffee finally peaked (Eater)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Metro in advanced talks to take over Jean Coutu for $4.5-billion (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon's future looks a lot like Sears's past (City Lab)
• Supermarkets need to get sexier in Amazon era, grocery CEO says (Bloomberg)
• Airbnb now lets you book restaurant reservations in the U.S. (The Verge)
• 99 Cents Only tells another cautionary debt tale (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Nestle makes billions bottling water it pays nearly nothing for (Bloomberg)
• One surprise standout for Uber: Food delivery (NYT)
• Your e-commerce brand will probably fail (Collaborative Fund)
• Target is smart to raise its minimum wage (Gadfly)
• Restoration Hardware bid on 3,200 keywords, found 98% of its PPC hits came from just 22 brand terms (eConsultancy)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The grocery industry confronts a new problem: Only 10% of Americans love cooking (HBR)
• Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated for $200 million (Tech Crunch)
• Walmart's holiday gift to employees: Longer hours (Washington Post)
• Amazon takes over the world (WSJ)
• Loblaw's charity steps up to tackle childhood hunger (Canadian Grocer)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• How grocery giant Aldi plans to conquer America: Limit choice (WSJ)
• Williams-Sonoma is built to win home-goods musical chairs (Gadfly)
• The rise of wellcare: A new market at the nexus of food, health, beauty (pwc)
• Amazon puts Whole Foods on fast track to conventional supermarket (WSJ)
• Walmart wants to send people into your house to stock the fridge (Financial Post)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Amazon is a lifeline for retail workers (if they work in the right city (Bloomberg)
• Shoppers Drug Mart targets baby boomers with new Wellwise retail brand (Globe and Mail)
• Ocado sales growth edges higher in latest quarter (Reuters)
• P&G slams Peltz's record as an activist-director (FT)
• PepsiCo focusing on the healthy snacks business (Forbes)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• When jobs become commodities (MIT SMR)
• Whole Foods shows what economists don't know (Bloomberg)
• Why Hispanic grocers are poised for explosive growth (Food Dive)
• The first autonomous drone delivery will fly above Switzerland starting next month (The Verge)
• Grocery and the need for speed (Progressive Grocer)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The lonely future of buying stuff (Bloomberg)
• Post to buy Bob Evans packaged food business for $1.5 billion (WSJ)
• Toys 'R' Us files for bankruptcy in Canada, US (CBC)
• Walgreens said to tweak Rite Aid deal to win U.S. approval (Bloomberg)
• Mobile-ready pack shots boost conversion (L2)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Amazon grocery threat could ramp up food M&A (Bloomberg)
• People don't buy groceries online because they prefer to pick things out in stores (Quartz)
• CFO at 29? Kraft Heinz move spotlights a pattern at 3G Capital (WSJ)
• The amazing ways Coca Cola uses AI and big data to drive success (Forbes)
• At bug eating festival, kids crunch down on the food of the future (NPR)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• How Big Business got Brazil hooked on junk food (NYT)
• How Kirkland Signature became one of Costco's biggest success stories (WSJ)
• Amazon sees snack sales surge as part of its grocery push (Bloomberg)
• Nestle targets high-end coffee by taking majority stake in Blue Bottle (NYT)
• Kroger won't beat Amazon with a restaurant (Gadfly)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The future of retail is stores that aren't stores (The Atlantic)
• Sobeys making progress, but still has 'significant work to do' (Globe and Mail)
• Bayer and Gingko Bioworks aim to make crops produce their own nitrogen fertilizer (Forbes)
• Meet the CamperForce, Amazon's nomadic retiree army (Wired)
• Whole Foods is becoming Amazon's brick-and-mortar pricing lab (HBR)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Two ex-Googlers want to make bodegas and mom-and-pop stores obsolete (Fast Company)
• Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it's not really close (Quartz)
• Coffee vs. climate change: The news is not good (Ars Technica)
• Notice less candy around CVS cash registers? You're right (Marketplace)
• Reshaping business with artificial intelligence (MIT SMR)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The case for investing more in people (HBR)
• A simple way to close the door on uncertain strategy (Globe and Mail)
• Robo-harvesters gather their first crop of barley (The Times)
• Digital advertising is facing its ultimate moment of truth (AdWeek)
• Nestle's growth supplements (Gadfly)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Building a strategic pricing organization (BCG)
• Nordstrom tries on a new look: Stores without merchandise (WSJ)
• The rise and fall of working from home (Bloomberg)
• As Amazon pushes forward with robots, workers find new roles (NYT)
• Target cuts prices on groceries and other consumables (Food Dive)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• This tiny country feeds the world (National Geographic)
• The secret sauce of test-tube fish (NeoLife)
• L'Oreal's problem with men (Bloomberg)
• Food stamps are finally being disrupted (Wired)
• Kraft Heinz promotes 29-year-old Goldman alum to CFO role (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The new frontier of price optimization (MIT SMR)
• Unilever, Nestle snap up organic tea and vegetarian burritos (Bloomberg)
• Trian details its case for changes at P&G in white paper (WSJ)
• Amazon plans second headquarters, opening a bidding war among cities (NYT)
• Private equity loves supermarkets, but do retailers benefit (Food Dive)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The high-tech vertical farm promises Whole Foods quality at Walmart prices (Bloomberg)
• Putting lifelong learning on the CEO agenda (McKinsey)
• Fancy snacks are having a moment. Venture capital wants in (Eater)
• Checkout systems are going autonomous (MIT Technology Review)
• Toys 'R' Us is said to hire advisers to help weigh bankruptcy (NYT)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Behind a $13 shirt, a $6-an-hour worker (Los Angeles Times)
• When celery was king (Taste)
• Why do so many incompetent men become leaders (HBR)
• Big Food faces pressure from retailers demanding discounts (WSJ)
• An activist investor's latest tactic - playing nice (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The inside story of what it took to keep a Texas grocery chain running in the chaos of Hurricane Harvey (LinkedIn)
• Is Unilever the last good big company (Bloomberg)
• What does it cost to start a new farm (Fast Company)
• Juicero, the $700 juicer startup, is looking for a buyer - and shutting down in the meantime (ReCode)
• Grocery business ripe for disruption (CBC)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Who is winning the food delivery war (Priconomics)
• Grocers, don't be blinded by Bezos (Bloomberg)
• It's not just a pickle on the side (WSJ)
• The man who sold his supermarket to Whole Foods talks about the future of grocery stores (Washington Post)
• Amazon's fight for more Whole Foods market share is going to be a long slog (Quartz)

Best of Pax Westona: August 2017

• Why the hatchet men of 3G spent $10 million on a better Oscar Mayer Weiner (Bloomberg)
• Supermarkets face a growing problem: Too much space (WSJ)
• Management is much more than a science (HBR)
• Head of America's largest grocer talks Amazon and ugly tomatoes (WSJ)
• End of the checkout line: The looming crisis for American cashiers (The Guardian)
• The incredible shrinking Sears (NYT)
• What brands are actually behind Trader Joe's snacks (Eater)
• At Walmart Academy, training better managers, but with a better future? (NYT)
• Inside the secret world of global food spies (Bloomberg)
• Amazon's new robo-picker champion is proudly inhuman (MIT Technology Review)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Are grocers ready for digital (L2)
• This miracle weed killer was supposed to save farms. Instead its devastating them (Washington Post)
• Organic Doritos give snack giant a way into Whole Foods (Bloomberg)
• Carrefour develops first sustainable zero-residue pear (Carrefour)
• Sears Canada executive chairman rushing to assemble takeover bid (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How Amazon is assembling the future of grocery (Oliver Wyman)
• The real price of those cheaper avocados (Slate)
• Target is launching a line of $5 wines (Food and Wine)
• How the Amazon-Whole Foods merger shrinks food deserts (Brookings)
• Walmart brings third-party selling to Canadian website as competition grows (CBC)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The Amazon effect: How prices dropped at Whole Foods (NYT)
• Amazon cuts prices as much as 43% on first day (Bloomberg)
• Packaged-food companies revamp effort fall short for investors (WSJ)
• The tater tot is America ingenuity at its finest (Eater)
• Drones relay RFID signals for inventory control (MIT)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Costco is playing a dangerous game with the web (Bloomberg)
• Why Amazon is such a threat to the grocery industry (The Atlantic)
• Today's fancy fridges can do almost anything. Except hold magnets (WSJ)
• Wal-Mart is buying trendy e-commerce sites. The cool kids are not having it (LA Times)
• How quirky Home Hardware is battling the big box chains. And winning (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Management is much more than a science (HBR)
• Target bets big on in-house brands (Business of Fashion)
• The battle between Amazon and Alibaba were be over warehouse space (Quartz)
• For some craft brewers, sales are tapping out (WSJ)
• Amazon to cut prices at Whole Foods after acquisition closes (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Head of America's largest grocer talks Amazon and ugly tomatoes (WSJ)
• A wild vision of the future run by Amazon and Whole Foods (Fast Company)
• Farm of the future: Why we invested in square roots (Collaborative Fund)
• The Guardian view on grocery wars (The Guardian)
• Whole Foods shareholders say yes to Amazon deal (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Google and Walmart partner with eye on Amazon (NYT)
• What does Amazon do (Quartz)
• Walmart expands grocery service with Uber to two more markets (Financial Post)
• Vanilla price surge hits high end ice cream (FT)
• This giant automated cricket farm is designed to make bugs a mainstream source of protein (Fast Company)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How Gatorade invented new products by revisiting old ones (HBR)
• Scientists just revolutionized coffee creamer (Slash Gear)
• Inside Aldi's push to dominate discount retailing in the US (Food Dive)
• How this upstart ice cream company began outselling Ben & Jerry's and Haagen Dazs (Inc)
• Why do dry cleaners charge less for men's shirts than from women's (Slate)