Best of Pax Westona: March 2018

• The 101 dishes that changed America (Thrillist)
• Inside the strange odyssey of hedge fund king Eddie Lampert (Vanity Fair)
• Grocery wars turn small chains into battleground casualties (NYT)
• They myth of authenticity is killing Tex-Mex (Eater)
• Can't stop, won't stop: Eating a whole pint of ice cream is OK now (WSJ)
• The secretive company that pours America's coffee (WSJ)
• Grocery retailing, reimagined (Bain)
• Yes, bacon really is killing you (The Guardian)
• Consumer goods: Big brands battle with the 'little guys' (FT)
• What might the Amazon, Berkshire and JP Morgan health care venture actually do (25iq)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• How to make work better (NYT)
• Walmart beat Amazon and Netflix to video on demand but still lost (Bloomberg)
• H&M, a fashion giant, has a problem: $4.3B in unsold clothes (NYT)
• 'It just went mad' - Meet the people behind the popcorn boom (The Guardian)
• From the archives (1998): Loblaw agrees to purchase Provigo for $897.5 million in cash and stock (WSJ)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• To invade homes, tech is trying to get into your kitchen (NYT)
• The 101 dishes that changed America (Thrillist)
• Amazon: The making of a giant (WSJ)
• Amazon gains French beachhead in deal with Casino's Monoprix (Bloomberg)
• Hello Fresh is now bigger than Blue Apron in the U.S. (Recode)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Inside the strange odyssey of hedge fund king Eddie Lampert (Vanity Fair)
• Grocery wars turn small chains into battleground casualties (NYT)
• Maker of Sharpies drew the line on trade promotions - and paid in lost sales (WSJ)
• Carrefour calls on Google for voice boost in battle with Amazon (Reuters)
• Do people really get promoted to their level of incompetence (HBR)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• The store is dead. Long live the store (MIT Sloan Management Review)
• American adults just keep getting fatter (NYT)
• A place to be seen (L2)
• Old school retailer Simons keeps faith in beautiful stores in age of Amazon (Financial Post)
• From Buzzfeed to Improbable, this is the startup that feeds startups (Wired)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Bag end: Why we're calling time on plastic waste (The Guardian)
• How to build a consumer brand (The Collaborative Fund)
• Nordstrom soldiers on as public company as buyout deal fizzles (Bloomberg)
• How one investor made a fortune picking over the retail apocalypse (WSJ)
• From the archives (2015): The AWS IPO (Stratchery)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• What opening a nonprofit grocery taught the former president of Trader Joe's (MIT)
• Costco eyes fresh delivery in Canada (Financial Post)
• Online groceries are having their moment (Gadfly)
• Hydroponic produce is blooming in Churchill (CBC)
• The Red Delicious is an apple atrocity. Why are we growing millions of them (New Food Economy)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Is dry cleaning dying (Racked)
• FedEx follows Amazon into the robotic future (NYT)
• Seven technologies remaking the world (MIT Sloan Management Review)
• Aeroplan strikes deal with Amazon for shoppers to earn points online (CBC)
• Oracle's Ellison unveils hydroponic farming startup (Tech Crunch)

Stephan's TuesdayPicks

• Toys 'R' Us case is test of private equity in age of Amazon (NYT)
• Costco under investigation by Ontario forensic team over drug company payments (CBC)
• Lab-grown dog food is first step to a clean meat empire (Neo,Life)
• Google makes push to turn product searches into cash (Reuters)
• Newell strikes deal with Icahn to fend off other activists (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Next generation superfood supplements - with beauty benefits (NYT)
• Luxury and cheap retail are thriving. But stores for the middle class are dying (Quartz)
• The need for speed. Capturing today's fashion consumer (McKinsey)
• In battle of the discounters, Dollar General gains an edge (WSJ)
• They myth of authenticity is killing Tex-Mex (Eater)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How Amazon became Corporate America's nightmare (Bloomberg)
• Most of America's fruit is now imported. Is that a bad thing (NYT)
• How your returns are used against you at Best Buy and other retailers (WSJ)
• Whistleblower says Walmart, eyeing Amazon, cheated on e-commerce (Reuters)
• From the archives (2013): Just add sugar: How an immigrant from Turkey turned Greek yogurt into a snack food (The New Yorker)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Sobeys feels pressure as Loblaw begins distribution of free gift cards (Globe and Mail)
• Unilever picks Rotterdam over London as main HQ (BBC)
• Walmart to offer home delivery of groceries in 100 cities (WSJ)
• Toys 'R' Us will proceed with shutdown of U.S. operations (Bloomberg)
• Inside Kroger's private label push (Retail Dive)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Online butchers cater to meat lovers in the age of Amazon (Bloomberg)
• Why so many high-profile digital transformations fail (HBR)
• Zara's blues: What's keeping the world's most valuable fashion retailer down (WSJ)
• We need to call American breakfast what it often is: Dessert (Vox)
• Aeroplan loses partnership with Esso as it moves to Loblaw's PC Optimum program (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The skin care wars, explained (Vox)
• Costco's squeezes on suppliers signifies pain for P&G, Nestle (Bloomberg)
• Food deserts may not matter that much (The Economist)
• Instacart is thinking about a self-checkout system (Fast Company)
• The hottest social scene in town isn't the singles' bar. It's the supermarket (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Can't stop, won't stop: Eating a whole pint of ice cream is OK now (WSJ)
• A peek inside one of Target's newest small format stores (Food Dive)
• Morgan Housel: Ideas that changed my life (Collaborative Fund)
• Toys 'R' Us Canada carries on business as usual amid reports of U.S. liquidation (CBC)
• Amazon is shifting Prime pantry service to subscription model (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The secretive company that pours America's coffee (WSJ)
• Inside Alibaba's AI lab (MIT Technology Review)
• Boxed rejects Kroger's $400 million purchase offers (Bloomberg)
• Fast fashion is causing an environmental emergency (Quartz)
• From the archives (2003): Weston set to acquire Selfridges (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Grocery retailing, reimagined (Bain)
• Coca Cola plans to launch its first alcoholic drink in Japan (Bloomberg)
• Carrefour using blockchain to improve checks on food products (Reuters)
• Is Amazon too big to tax (The New Republic)
• Amazon squeezes Instacart in Whole foods delivery push (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Bugs in the grocery aisle; Loblaw adds cricket powder to its PC line (CBC)
• An agenda for the talent-first CEO (McKinsey)
• Next up for Amazon: Checking accounts (WSJ)
• Why retail's artificial intelligence bet is all wrong (Quartz)
• The design theory behind Amazon's $5.6 billion success (Fast Company)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Simons opens its doors to outside investors for bigger push into e-commerce (Globe and Mail)
• The death of the "Big Food" era is imminent after the industry's biggest lobbying group crumbles (Quartz)
• Former Starbucks chief to help fuse Albertsons, Rite Aid aid (WSJ)
• Meal kits come to Walmart stores and online grocery service (Tech Crunch)
• KFC's big screw up left restaurants without chicken (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• P&G contends too much digital advertising is a waste (WSJ)
• Zara hipsters transform its hometown into a Spanish powerhouse (Bloomberg)
• Why best practices often fall short (MIT Sloan Management Review)
• Yes, bacon really is killing you (The Guardian)
• At food expo, companies jockey for the next big thing (WSJ)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Obvious things that easily escape attention (Collaborative Fund)
• Bit by bit, Amazon gets an Whole Foods touch (NYT)
• What might the Amazon, Berkshire and JP Morgan health care venture actually do (25iq)
• Unilever lays bare palm oil supply chain in rare industry move (Reuters)
• From the archives (2014): Tesco, what went wrong (BBC)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Big consumer brands don't have an answer for Alexa (WSJ)
• Amazon agrees to buy smart-doorbell startup Ring (Bloomberg)
• Consumer goods: Big brands battle with the 'little guys' (FT)
• How craft breweries are helping to revive local economies (NYT)
• Ford targets Miami to test driverless food delivery (WSJ)