Stephan's Friday Picks

• Seven stories about the science of fast food (Longreads)
• America doesn't need more Olive Gardens (Gadfly)
• Dollarama to open more stores, start accepting credit cards (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon closes money-losing Quidsi to narrow focus on fresh groceries (Bloomberg)
• Ace Bakery bets on breakfast (Strategy)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Bulk foods are going mainstream in US grocery stores (Food Dive)
• Can supermarkets profit from delivery (Forbes)
• Amazon announces Amazon Fresh pickup service for groceries (Wired)
• Instagram killed the retail store (Bloomberg)
• Staples tries to become a hip, co-working hangout (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Amazon confirms acquisition of Souq, marking its move into the Middle East (Tech Crunch)
• Reckoning in retail (L2)
• Google Tango means you'll never get lost in a store again (CNET)
• The hidden monopolies that raise drug prices (The American Prospect)
• The next generation operating model for the digital world (McKinsey)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How retailers can drive profitable growth through dynamic pricing (Mckinsey)
• Tesco nears the end of its darkest chapter (Gadfly)
• Two Tesco shareholders oppose $6.2 billion takeover of wholesaler Booker (The Guardian)
• The new way established brands do battle with startups (AdWeek)
• Grocery tracker: Turnaround in sight (PYMNTS)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Amazon's ambitions unboxed (NYT)
• Amazon, the world's most remarkable firm, is just getting started (The Economist)
• Target spooks long-term believers (Gadfly)
• Predictability of consumer staples due for a drastic rethink (Financial Times)
• The big lie of strategic planning (HBR)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Alberta trying more booze to ease the pain of oil price slump (Bloomberg)
• Canada suspends meat imports from two Brazil plants in food scandal (CBC)
• The latest acquisition targets are indie beauty brands (Bloomberg)
• Grocery shopping is about to change dramatically (Forbes)
• The brain in the supermarket: Simple 'index strategy' helps consumers make choices (MIT)
• Walmart Canada brings grocery home delivery to the GTA (Walmart)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Sears warns of 'substantial doubt' about company's future (Bloomberg)
• How the West was won (Canadian Grocer)
• Aldi follows Walmart - Barcodes and the future of retail (Forbes)
• Costco expands delivery business in Florida (Shipt)
• Kraft Heinz expands sustainability push after Unilever bid (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How Chobani's Hamdi Ulukaya is winning America's culture war (Fast Company)
• Hudson's Bay exposes Saks customer info online (Globe and Mail)
• General Mills' copycat strategy isn't working (Gadfly)
• Wal-Mart unveils 'Store No. 8' tech incubator in Silicon Valley (Bloomberg)
• Amazon, bigger than you think, and their loyalists, are eating your lunch (Robin Report)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Inside Amazon's battle to break into the $800 billion grocery market (Bloomberg)
• In praise of quinoa (The Economist)
• The most reputable companies in the world in 2017 (Reputation Institute)
• Albertson's said to weigh merger with organic grocer Sprouts (Bloomberg)
• Here's what Target could look like pretty soon (Fortune)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Rising labour costs, and what retailers can do about them (LEK Consulting)
• Unilever investors toasting Buffett and Krafty krew (Financial Times)
• Down to zero: How this Ottawa entrepreneur plans to change the way you buy food (CBC)
• 'Desperate' food industry going to new lengths to innovate (CBC)
• How the supermarket has changed in the last 30 years (Fortune)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• New Sobeys CEO Michael Medline says grocer let down its customers (Globe and Mail)
• Canada Goose ends drought of luxury-goods IPOs (Bloomberg)
• We have no idea how bad fashion actually is for the environment (Racked)
• Blockchain will transform customer loyalty programs (HBR)
• Data-driven decision making, American Express style (TechTarget)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Capturing value from your customer data (McKinsey)
• CRISPR, microbes and more are joining the war against crop killers (Nature)
• Humans made the banana perfect - but soon it'll be gone (Wired)
• Ron Johnson on Apple, Target (Recode)
• When Carrefour corners your corner store (The Financial)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Building a more intelligent enterprise (MIT SMR)
• Tesco sets up supplier hotline to cut food waste (CIPS Supply Management)
• Wall Street has found its next big short: Malls (Bloomberg)
• Walmart to combat Amazon with in-store screens that let you buy things online (Consumerist)
• Americans are eating more butter than ever (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Marketers to spend on analytics, use remains elusive (CMO Survey)
• A bank called Costco (Canadian Grocer)
• Q&A: Instacart's "grocery nerd" talks about how to make e-commerce work (Food Dive)
• Call to boycott Tesco over 'endangered' white men claim (The Guardian)
• Toronto's Hard Rock is closing and becoming a Shoppers Drug Mart (BlogTO)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Video captures moment plastic enters food chain (BBC)
• Big tobacco has caught startup fever (Bloomberg)
• How to cut costs more strategically (HBR)
• Lindt's chocolate blueprint for Nestle (Gadfly)
• The story of Heady Topper - America's obsession-driving double IPA (Food and Wine)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Cheap, stolen meat gobbled up by bargain hunters (CBC)
• Diapers for baby boomers gives boost to paper industry (Bloomberg)
• Wal-Mart testing in-store touchscreens in challenge to Amazon (Retail Dive)
• Are we into creative destruction, or just plain destruction (Robin Report)
• What does "product quality" really mean (MIT SMR)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Click and Collect is convenient, but can it be profitable (Food Dive)
• Instacart, now $400 Million richer, tries to be thrifty (Bloomberg)
• The rise (and fall?) of food writing (The Ringer)
• Digital shopping habits bleed into stores (Gadfly)
• A seafood company killed a lobster - and was convicted of animal cruelty (Washington Post)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How brands can optimize TV ads to drive product discovery (Google)
• Why retailers should push deli offerings (Retail Dive)
• Canada Bread buys Toronto craft bread maker (Canadian Grocer)
• UK food inflation doubles as discounters grab record grocery share (The Telegraph)
• Target puts machine learning toward unification (Pymnts)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Blockchain: A better way to track pork chops, bonds, bad peanut butter (NYT)
• It's not the ink, it's the think: 6 data visualization strategies (Avinash Kaushik)
• Report: Macy's-Hudson's Bay merger talks at impasse (Retail Dive)
• Albertson's optimizes retail buying with new tech (Progressive Grocer)
• Gartner to acquire L2, terms not disclosed (Street Insider)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Unilever's brand of responsible capitalism should be lauded (Financial Times)
• Megabrew needs mega-volumes (Gadfly)
• With a single speech, P&G's Pritchard signals new rules for digital advertising (Forbes)
• Bluefin tuna is the most coveted fish in the sea - and it's nearing extinction (The Ringer)
• Battle of gourmet grocers brews in Rosedale (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Target CEO outlines plans for new stores, grocery biz (Progressive Grocer)
• Kroger ramps up home delivery tests with Uber as online heats up (CNBC)
• PepsiCo, Coca-Cola spurned in Southern India in fight over water (Bloomberg)
• P&G's Marc Pritchard slams objections to his attempt to clean up digital (Marketing News)
• American Express escalates high-fee card competition (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Why Costco bucks the retail malaise (WSJ)
• Instacart in talks to raise about $400 million (Bloomberg)
• McDonald's lays out plans to bring traffic back to stores (Globe and Mail)
• Urban planning (CG)
• Sainsbury's named world's best sustainable seafood supermarket (The Guardian)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• An inside look at the ups and downs of Walmart's journey (HBR)
• Target plunges most in eight years (Bloomberg)
• Hershey to cut thousands of jobs globally (Fortune)
• The corporate strategy office has been key to Samsung's success. Now it's shutting down (Vox)
• How mass merchants are waging the war for brick-and-mortar share (Robin Report)