Stephan's Friday Picks

• Boston Dynamics has been using its robotic 'dog' to deliver packages in Boston (Recode)
• In retail, AR is for shoppers and VR is for business (Forbes)
• How discount grocery retailers prosper (Food Dive)
• Discount grocery store workers speak out against management, unions (CBC)
• Amazon extends growth streak, unfazed by lavish spending (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Walmart's plan to trick people into saving money (The Atlantic)
• What is going on at Whole Foods (Eater)
• Instacart is taking its next move straight out of Amazon's playbook (Quartz)
• Coca Cola with fiber reveals soda revamp (Business Insider)
• Dole looks to return to stock markets, again (NYT)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How this grocer turns old food into new energy (Bostonomix)
• An activist investment in Whole Foods exposes shifting power on Wall Street (NYT)
• Metro profit beats estimates as cost controls offset lower prices (Globe and Mail)
• Costco to return $3.1 billion to investors with special dividend (Bloomberg)
• Deploy supply chain analytical platforms to build flexible solutions (Gartner)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Beauty and the e-commerce beast (AT Kearney)
• This sweater company is breaking a cashmere cartel (Bloomberg)
• Distortions and deceptions in strategic decisions (McKinsey)
• How to win a price war (MIT SMR)
• Staples, Payless, Bebe: Stores closing at an epic pace (CNN)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Walmart's grocery price wars (Pymnts)
• Women and men now grocery shop regularly: Study (Progressive Grocer)
• Juice wars: Juicero has sued another juice maker for patent infringement (Ars Technica)
• Unilever buys Sir Kensington's, maker of fancy ketchup (NYT)
• How 7-Eleven will beat worker blues (Gadfly)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• A rare venture capitalist - female and retail-focused (NYT)
• Prescriptions for fresh produce, and other world-changing ideas in food (Fast Company)
• Canada's dairy cartel, the unkillable sacred cow made of other, literal cows (National Post)
• Meet the young founder of chewy.com, which PetSmart just bought for $3.35 billion (Inc)
• Consumer trust in social media 'influencers' drops (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• How online shopping makes suckers of us all (The Atlantic)
• Loblaw sells chain of 213 gas stations to Brookfield for $540 million (CBC)
• Silicon Valley's $400 juicer may be feeling the squeeze (Bloomberg)
• Walmart's bargain bin e-commerce plan (Gadfly)
• Primark plans biggest expansion in decade as chain's sales soar (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Why diversity programs fail (HBR)
• Post nears $1.76 billion deal for Weetabix (Bloomberg)
• Walmart's e-commerce strategy: Pure genius or venture capitalist bailout fund (Forbes)
• The silent crisis of retail employment (The Atlantic)
• Why drone delivery still has a long way to go before taking off (Retail Dive)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Robots are now doing food deliveries (Vox)
• CPG manufacturers need a comprehensive strategy for digitization (McKinsey)
• Amex, challenged by Chase, is losing the snob war (NYT)
• H-E-B is growing salad behind the store (Dallas Morning News)
• Which products should you stock (HBR)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Galen G. Weston: Life at the top of the food chain (Globe and Mail)
• Is CRISPR gene editing driving seed consolidation (Civil Eats)
• How to think about Walmart (The Atlantic)
• How both nutrition and indulgence are propelling growth in CPG (BCG)
• The future of department stores (The Robin Report)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Imagining the retail store of the future (NYT)
• Walmart to lower prices on thousands on a million online-only items but only if you opt for store pickup over delivery (Tech Crunch)
• Tesco lays down price gauntlet to rivals as pressure builds (Bloomberg)
• Goodman Gluten Free expands with Ahold USA (Project Nosh)
• Amazon said to mull Whole Foods bid before Jana stepped in (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How Dollarama became the retail king of knockoffs (Macleans)
• Whole Foods pressured by activist investor Jana Partners (NYT)
• Wall Street's misguided (and dangerous) fascination with retail store productivity (Forbes)
• Sam Adams and Miller fight over the future of craft beer (Fortune)
• How Amazon Go "probably" makes "just walk out" groceries a reality (Ars Technica)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The utter uselessness of job interviews (NYT)
• The whole 'Malls are dying' is getting old, say mall CEOs (Bloomberg)
• According to new Google research, teens think Google is cool - sorry, "lit" (Quartz)
• Inside Blue Apron's meal kit machine (Bloomberg)
• The great retail apocalypse of 2017 (The Atlantic)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Unilever's Paul Polman on why he didn't get angry when Kraft Heinz came to call (The Telegraph)
• Our messed-up relationship with food has a long history. It started with butter (Washington Post)
• Amazon's robot war is spreading (Bloomberg)
• Is it last call for craft beer (NYT)
• The restaurant deal frenzy has a shelf life (Gadfly)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Unilever restructures after failed Kraft bid, offloading spreads business (Financial Times)
• This robot will haul up to 1,500 kilos around a warehouse for nine hours without stopping (MIT Technology Review)
• Aldi remodels stores near first Lidl sites (Supermarket News)
• Hudson's Bay posts $152 quarterly million net loss (CBC)
• Dear brands, quit trying to be my best friend (Racked)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• How Trader Joe's wine became cheaper than bottled water (Thrillist)
• Why brands need to approach loyalty like Amazon (Marketing Week)
• Why investors are so keen on Amazon (The Economist)
• Strategic choices need to be made simultaneously, not sequentially (HBR)
• Holt Renfrew shakes things up amid increased competition (Toronto Star)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How content helps the UK's biggest supermarkets stand out (Contently)
• A Brooklyn ice cream brand increased sales by 50% after it redesigned its packaging (Quartz)
• How do winning consumer-goods companies capture growth (McKinsey)
• Inside Walmart's digital strategy (Ragan)
• Cheetos' spring fashion line proves Big Food hates itself (New Food Economy)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Reckitt Benckiser review could put French's mustard up for sale (NYT)
• VF needs a new megadeal, here's why it's taking so long (Fortune)
• How big brands can prepare for US grocery's tectonic shifts (Bain)
• University of Guelph gets largest gift ever to lead agri-food revolution (University of Guelph)
• This is what strawberries are supposed to taste like (Bon Appetit)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Amazon wants Cheerios, Oreos, and other brands to bypass Walmart (Bloomberg)
• Amazon and Walmart are in an all-out price war that are terrifying America's biggest brands (Recode)
• Is it too late for Sears to save itself (HBR)
• The death of the daily deal (K@W)
• Johnson and Johnson have a baby powder problem (Bloomberg)