Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Wal-Mart launches new front in U.S. price war, targets Aldi in grocery aisle (Reuters)
• Dealmaker Michael Klein helped kill Kraft Heinz bid for Unilever (Financial Times)
• Concerns grow that loyalty programs may have fallen miles behind customer needs (Canadian Business)
• The new battleground for marketing led growth (MQ)
• CPG now spends more on digital than traditional ads, but shoppers doubt they work (AdAge)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Warren Buffett's Letter to Shareholders (Berkshire Hathaway)
• Inside the brutal transformation of Tim Hortons (Globe and Mail)
• The supermarket food gamble may be up (The Guardian)
• Giant Tiger and other discounters in expansion mode (CBC)
• Sworn to secrecy, drugstores stay silent as customers overpay (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Consumers don't want Amazon or Google to help them shop (Bloomberg)
• TJ Maxx shouldn't discount department store lessons (Gadfly)
• Turning rewards into loyalty (Bain)
• Hudson's Bay Co. misled consumers on mattress prices, says Competition Bureau (CBC)
• Inside the 'treasure hunt': The five keys to Costco Canada's success (Financial Post)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• At Kroger, technology is changing the grocery-store shopping experience (WSJ)
• How to save a dying mall (Bloomberg)
• Raising the steaks: the Seattle startup crowd-funding sustainable beef (The Guardian)
• Are your employees putting the company's interests first (Kellogg Insight)
• Unilever to review strategy after rejecting $143-billion Kraft bid (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Rollback: Wal-Mart to focus more on everyday low pricing initiative (Globe and Mail)
• How the cookie fortune crumbles: Dare family embroiled in lawsuit over company's fate (National Post)
• Hedge funds' next big short: U.S. malls (Value Walk)
• Here's how on-demand detergent could help P&G deal with 'crappy' metrics (L2)
• Burger King owner to buy Popeyes for $1.8 Billion (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Unilever-Colgate? Unilever-Nestle? (Gadfly)
• Shop or drop. The inevitable path for growth in beauty (AT Kearney)
• Questions investors should be asking low-wage employers (Zeynep Ton)
• Organic food sales soar as shoppers put quality before price (The Guardian)
• These animals live better than you do. Which is why they taste so great (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Is corporate short-terminism really a problem? The jury's still out (HBR)
• Nestle's flavorless new CEO (Gadfly)
• Cereal aims for better bowls (Progressive Grocer)
• Dean wants to move beyond milk with juice, ice cream (Bloomberg)
• Top 10 home care brands in digital (L2)
• Kraft Heinz makes approach to Unilever on possible merger (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• A first look at how German grocer Lidl  plans to conquer the U.S. market (WaPo)
• Is gluten-free still worth the investment for retailers (Food Dive)
• Sell by? Use by? Grocery industry moves to simplify labels (NYT)
• PepsiCo faces pressure to get healthy as forecast disappoints (Bloomberg)
• Everyone wants in on the C-Store game (Kantar Retail)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Texture is the final frontier of food science (Popular Science)
• Wegmans grocery stores have the craziest super fans (Thrillist)
• Got almond milk? Dairy farmers protest milk label on non-dairy drinks (NYT)
• Tesco customers overcharged by out-of-date offers (BBC)
• Image matters (Robin Report)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Amazon's living lab: Re-imagining retail on Seattle streets (NYT)
• What's next for Europe's shrinking grocery stores (Forbes)
• Sugar traders brace for wild ride as surplus hangs on weather (Bloomberg)
• Do sin taxes really change consumer behaviour (K@W)
• Too much water is diluting juice from world's No. 1 orange crop (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Why Whole Foods is now struggling (WaPo)
• Having more options can make us evaluate risks differently (HBR)
• Kellogg's dumping DSD sparks industry speculation (Supermarket News)
• How Red Bull became a media company (L2)
• Excavation readies heritage Loblaws site for mixed-use density (Urban Toronto)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The making of a brand (Collaborative Fund)
• Billboards call out Procter and Gamble's top marketer (Adage)
• Coty tumbles after purchase of P&G's brands brings challenges (Bloomberg)
• Whole Foods gets religion, but now it needs reinvention (Globe and Mail)
• Incoming Coca-Cola CEO says this is what Coke's future will look like (CNBC)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• This company rents brains to PepsiCo and others with thorny problems (Bloomberg)
• The next American farm bust is upon us (WSJ)
• What's fair? How food prices are set - and taken advantage of (Food Dive)
• Aldi spends $1.6 billion on upscale look with downscale prices (Bloomberg)
• Where companies with a long-term view outperform their peers (MQ)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The rise of craft chocolate (Bloomberg)
• Kroger and Murray's Cheese announce merger (Kroger)
• Albertson's CEO: From grocery clerk to head of more than 2,300 stores (WSJ)
• Dollar disruptors: How discount stores are shaking up the grocery world (Food Dive)
• Priced to go (The New Yorker)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• 1 in 7 employees are stars. The best companies cluster them together (HBR)
• Should government control what low-income people eat (Brookings)
• A Hudson's Bay takeover could mean the end of Macy's (BoF)
• Are more expensive groceries actually healthier (National Post)
• Wal-Mart steps us grocery wars with e-commerce drive (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Hudson's Bay reported to be in bid for Macy's (CBC)
• War of convenience as supermarket chains take on small stores (The Guardian)
• The latest trend at high-end grocery stores may seem laughable, but 'produce butchers' can be helpful (National Post)
• The most influential brands in Canada (CG)
• The best Super Bowl commercials (Wired)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Can fast food get healthy (The New Yorker)
• Top 10 beverage brands in digital (L2)
• Lidl is leveraging Aldi in their growth strategy (Brick Meets Click)
• Korea's cosmetic juggernaut (Gadfly)
• Leading people too smart to be led (HBR)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Supermarket tycoon Sir Ken Morrison dies age 85 (The Guardian)
• Reckitt targets Mead Johnson with surprise $16.7B bid (Bloomberg)
• Fresh opportunities for growth: How grocery stores can leverage the perimeter (Food Dive)
• The history of markets reveals a lot about the state of the economy (Quartz)
• Bacon shortage? Calm down. It's fake news (NYT)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Ocado survives the grocery killer (Gadfly)
• Robotic grocers have learned how to handle vegetables (MIT Technology Review)
• The threats to the world's chocolate forests (The Atlantic)
• How Unilever is winning with millennials and Generation Z (Forbes)
• What pigs eat matters to millennials (Food Manufacturing)