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)