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)