Best of Pax Westona: February 2018

• Amazon built its hyper efficient warehouses by embracing chaos (Quartz)
• Making sense vs. being right (Collaborative Fund)
• Kraft Heinz made its factories really efficient. Now it has to sell bologna (WSJ)
• Use big data to give local shoppers what they want (BCG)
• Thinking inside the subscription box (McKinsey)
• Why dominating your category can be a flawed strategy (HBR)
• The Amazon-ification of Whole Foods (The Atlantic)
• Tesco 'planning' on discount chain  to take on Aldi and Lidl (The Guardian)
• PepsiCo dips its toes into the sparkling water market (NYT)
• The dark art of stealing from self-checkouts (The Atlantic)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• What H-E-B's acquisition of Favor means for both companies (Texas Monthly)
• Why AI researchers at Google got desks next to their boss (NYT)
• Amazon plans to open at least six new Amazon Go locations this year (Recode)
• What explains our mania for avocados (WSJ)
• Hummus isn't meant to be a dip. Why do Americans treat is as one (Quartz)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Metrolinx, Loblaw to pilot grocery-pickup service at Go Transit stations (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon built its hyper efficient warehouses by embracing chaos (Quartz)
• General Mills pays steep price to get into high growth business (Bloomberg)
• Pink lettuce is the photo-friendly vegetable flooding feeds right now (Eater)
• Big Food faces pressure as consumers seek fresh meals, snacks (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Warren Buffet's 2017 letter to shareholders (Berkshire Hathaway)
• Making sense vs. being right (Collaborative Fund)
• Big companies are embracing analytics, but most still don't have a data-driven culture (HBR)
• Would delivery drones be all that efficient? Depends where you live (Wired)
• The enemy of Amazon is my friend (Gadfly)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Early bird specials in South Florida are dying, thanks to baby boomers (Eater)
• Alibaba is using artificial intelligence to help raise pigs (Quartz)
• Will Amazon Go capture the holy grail of retail (Knowledge@Wharton)
• H-E-B acquires Texas-based on-demand company Favor (Tech Crunch)
• From the archives (1999): End of an empire: The overview; RJR Nabisco splits tobacco ventures and food business (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Kraft Heinz made its factories really efficient. Now it has to sell bologna (WSJ)
• Amazon becomes PR genius, for good or ill (Bloomberg)
• Sam's Club makes e-commerce push with Amazon Prime competitor (NYT)
• Danone to sell stake in Japan's Yakult for $1.8 billion (Bloomberg)
• Nestle CEO Schneider seeks deals as sales growth sputters (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Sears Canada creditors zero in on Lampert payments (WSJ)
• Use big data to give local shoppers what they want (BCG)
• Why competitive advantages die (Collaborative Fund)
• How one cargo ship delay sends ripples through Alaska's food supply chain (Anchorage Daily News)
• Unilever threatens to reduce ad spending on tech platforms that don't combat divisive content (WSJ)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The end of scale (MIT Sloan Management Review)
• Thinking inside the subscription box: New research on e-commerce consumers (McKinsey)
• The 100 most nutritious foods (BBC)
• Rising hummus prices? Blame a drought half a world away (NYT)
• Amazon to launch delivery service that would vie with FedEx, UPS (WSJ)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Ocado's big weapon against Amazon is more jam tomorrow (Gadfly)
• Why dominating your category can be a flawed strategy (HBR)
• The Amazon-ification of Whole Foods (The Atlantic)
• Lessons in loyalty from Loblaw and Sobeys (The Grocer)
• From the archives (2012): Frito-Lay takes a new tack on snacks (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• L'Oreal ready to buy Nestle stake in cosmetics leader (Reuters)
• Tesco's mystery shopper (Gadfly)
• Mark Lore looks to the future of online shopping (WSJ)
• We were promised the world's most delicious mangoes. They never came (Vice)
• Choice Properties is buying Canadian REIT for $3.9 billion (Financial Post)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Bayer offers vegetable seeds disposal to clinch Monsanto deal (Reuters)
• Is Flipkart worth $20 billion? Walmart weighs price of India bet (Bloomberg)
• Why Amazon's grocery store may not be the future of retail (HBR)
• Getting your product on the shelves at Whole Foods just got harder (WSJ)
• The Capones' foray into the dairy business (Gasto Obscura)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Union holds strike talks for all Safeway stores in Manitoba (CBC)
• Amazon is turning these four cities into grocery battlegrounds (Bloomberg)
• App maker wants to help grocers around the world cut down on rotting food (Globe and Mail)
• This former dairy now makes the first commercial peanut milk (Fast Company)
• Yes I will let Amazon delivery my Whole Foods produce even though I know it's bad for the country (Slate)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• In sweeping war on obesity, Chile slays Tony the Tiger (NYT)
• Starboard to launch proxy fight to replace entire Newell Brands board (WSJ) 
• Tesco 'planning' on discount chain  to take on Aldi and Lidl (The Guardian)
• Talenti gelato is delicious - if you can open the lid (WSJ)
• Hudson's Bay says it turns down Signa's offer for Kaufhof chain (Reuters) 

Stephan's Friday Picks

• PepsiCo dips its toes into the sparkling water market (NYT)
• Naspers and Meituan invest $100 million in Indian delivery business (Tech Crunch)
• Activist pushes Supervalu to break up, explore sale (WSJ)
• Brits are spending less time doing long weekend grocery shops (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2008): Anheuser-Busch agrees to be sold to In-Bev (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The Wired guide to artificial intelligence (Wired)
• Why less selection, not more, will be the defining retail trend of 2018 (Hubba)
• Soylent looks to shed techie image with 7-Eleven store expansion (Bloomberg)
• 'Lady Doritos'? Pepsi wants a do-over (NYT)
• Tesco faces record $5.6B equal pay claim (BBC)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The dark art of stealing from self-checkouts (The Atlantic)
• Aiming at China's armpits: When foreign brands misfire (NYT)
• Kroger to sell convenience stores to UK's EG Group for $2.15 billion (Reuters)
• CVS executive hired to run Hudson's Bay (NYT)
• Walmart has acquired a virtual reality startup as part of its tech makeover (Recode)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Alibaba's online growth surges, even as it looks offline (NYT)
• Alibaba leads $300 million funding for India's top online grocer (Bloomberg)
• Big brands lose pricing power in battle for customers (FT)
• IKEA's success can't be attributed to one charismatic leader (HBR)
• Formula scandal sends shudders through France (NYT)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• How Amazon rebuilt its artificial intelligence flywheel (Wired)
• What Amazon does to poor cities (The Atlantic)
• Walmart's new robots are loved by staff - and ignored by customers (MIT Technology Review)
• How to sell embarrassing products (HBR)
• Loblaw, Metro brace for 'industry-wide impact' from lower generic drug prices (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Food distributors sue Tyson, Pigrim's Pride, and others alleging collusion on chicken prices (WSJ)
• Whole Foods employees reveal why stores are facing a crisis of food shortages (Business Insider) 
• Grocers must focus on consumer trust, not deniability (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon Go and the future (Stratchery)
• From the archives (2005): Loblaw's supply chain reaction (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The cult skin-care brand whose secret ingredient is being dirt cheap (The New Yorker)
• What drew Amazon and Alibaba to bricks-and-mortar (Bloomberg)
• Amazon HQ2 spurs worries of a wage war in winning city (WSJ)
• This autonomous van could move a lot of goods, but not a single person (MIT Technology Review)
• Bakers, grocers met to reach deals on bread prices, competition watchdog alleges (CBC)