Best of Pax Westona: May 2018

• The life, death, and resurrection of the Canadian discount store (Buzzfeed)
• Corner Office: Bernardo Hees of Kraft Heinz (NYT)
• Why grocers need to start operating like consumer brands (BCG)
• Sobeys on the rebound: Is Michael Medline's strategy working (Globe and Mail)
• The spectacular power of Big Lens (The Guardian)
• The meaning of the Vision Fund (The Economist)
• How Costco's obsession with culture drove success (MIT)
• The Tim Hortons brand is badly broken. Here's how to fix it (Macleans)
• The economics of artificial intelligence (McKinsey)
• The problem with buying cheap stuff online (The Atlantic)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Galen G. Weston on the future of food (Canadian Grocer)
• Food companies churn through CEOs, desperate for fresh ideas (WSJ)
• Unilever transformed its old office park into an ultra sustainable HQ (Fast Company)
• The one retailer Amazon can't seem to destroy is in cosmetics (Quartz)
• 30 minutes with Ulta's SVP of merchandising (Retail Dive)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• M&S boss turns to hi-fi entrepreneur to amp up profits (The Guardian)
• These are the classic American foods people are giving up (Quartz)
• The Proactiv dermatologists break the billion dollar barrier - again (Bloomberg)
• Simons acquires outside investment to help fund distribution centre (Globe and Mail)
• Pret a Manger, UK sandwich chain, is sold to food giant JAB (NYT)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The problem with buying cheap stuff online (The Atlantic)
• How do consumers choose in a world of automated ordering (HBR)
• Visa, Mastercard push for one-click ordering. retailers say 'Not so fast' (WSJ)
• Pepsico to acquire the fruit and veggie snack maker Bare Foods (NYT)
• Ocado, the tech startup you thought was a supermarket (The Economist)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• 14 secrets of Costco employees (Mental Floss)
• What's in P&G's products? You can now find out (WSJ)
• The tastes of summer, ranked (NYT)
• Microsoft gets visual food logging patent (The Spoon)
• Why our society's obsession with cleanliness has become too much of a good thing (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How the math men overthrew the mad men (The New Yorker)
• Has wine gone bad (The Guardian)
• Kroger buys meal kit company Home Chef in latest online acquisition (WSJ)
• Walmart has quietly launched Jetblack, a 'members-only' personal shopping service for affluent city moms (Recode)
• From the archives (2007): How successful leaders think (HBR)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Fashion's woman problem (NYT)
• Campbell's strategy comes under scrutiny after CEO departure (WSJ)
• How to eat candy like a Swedish person (The New Yorker)
• Wondering how customers feel about your brand (Kellogg Insight)
• The economics of artificial intelligence (McKinsey)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The Tim Hortons brand is badly broken. Here's how to fix it (Macleans)
• How Rexall plans to slim down for healthier profit in a competitive market (Globe and Mail)
• How Amazon is using Whole Foods in a bid for total retail domination (Fortune)
• The rise of subscription shopping (The Guardian)
• Walmart cuts Weston as bread supplier months after allegations of price-fixing surface (Financial Post)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Don't get too used to your own desk (WSJ)
• The store (it would seem) is not dead (at least for now) (The Cut)
• Why salt has disappeared from restaurant tables (Bloomberg)
• Faster fashion: How to shorten the apparel calendar (McKinsey)
• People are hating the new Loblaws self-checkout system (BlogTO)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• This summer's must-have craft beers for the poolside cooler (WSJ)
• Paleo, keto, fasting: Why food tribes are on the rise (Washington Post)
• Jeff Bezos to workers everywhere: You'll all work for Amazon soon (Fast Company)
• Nestle falls behind as millennials warm up to frozen food (Reuters)
• From the archives (2007): Retail: Lots more Mr. Nice Guy (Canadian Business)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Collagen, a wrinkle-cream staple, catches on in foods (WSJ)
• Next up at Amazon-run Whole Foods: Half-priced halibut steaks (NYT)
• Salad leaders weigh in on chopped vs. not chopped controversy (Bloomberg)
• Walmart goes upscale, offering Lord & Taylor brands (NYT)
• Ocado shares rocket on Kroger tech deal (BBC)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• What's behind the surge in retail healthcare deals (Bain)
• Cashierless Amazon Go stores coming to San Francisco and Chicago (Recode)
• Aurora Cannabis to buy MedReleaf in $3.2B takeover (CBC)
• A wakeup call for employers: Career development is more important than pay (BoF)
• FedEx's Smith sees blockchain as 'new frontier' for logistics (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How Costco's obsession with culture drove success (MIT)
• The spectacular power of Big Lens (The Guardian)
• At Toys 'R' Us, a $200 million debt problem could lead to $348 million in fees (NYT)
• Trans fats in food: The WHO's global ban, explained (Vox)
• Artificial intelligence might be the new frontier in food flavors (Eater)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Canadian Tire buys sportswear company Helly Hansen for nearly $1B (CBC)
• That endless series of menu items is paralyzing diners (WSJ)
• The meaning of the Vision Fund (The Economist)
• Red Lobster and waffles (NYT)
• Debiasing the corporation: An interview with Richard Thaler (McKinsey)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Walmart takes control of India's Flipkart in e-commerce gamble (NYT)
• Ocado courts global food retailers with robot army (Reuters)
• How Walmart, the big seller, is shopping for a fight with Amazon (NYT)
• Gen Z's need for speed and how retailers can keep up (Retail Dive)
• From the archives (2014): The big lie of strategic planning (HBR)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Sobeys on the rebound: Is Michael Medline's strategy working (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon launches new pet product brand, Wag; starts with food (Bloomberg)
• Finally, evidence that managing for the long term pays off (HBR)
• Saving face (L2)
• Walmart ends grocery delivery deal with Uber and Lyft (Tech Crunch)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• In Japan, doing more with less means getting a robot to milk your cows (WSJ)
• Is the beauty industry Amazon-proof (FT)
• Alibaba's profit slips as it spends to expand the empire (NYT)
• No sticker shock ahead for Canadian grocery shoppers (Globe and Mail)
• The world's largest brewers have a new weapon: weak beer (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Older Americans are 'hooked' on vitamins (NYT)
• Nestle enters agreement for the perpetual global license of Starbucks consumer and foodservice products (Nestle)
• This amazing new milk is going to change everything (Mother Jones)
• Jana, Conagra end standstill as Pinnacle Foods comes under pressure to sell (Reuters)
• Mondelez gobbles up cookie maker Tate's Bake Shop (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Why grocers need to start operating like consumer brands (BCG)
• The innovation turning desert sand into farmland (BBC)
• Walmart beats Amazon in $15 billion Flipkart battle (Bloomberg)
• Corner Office: Bernardo Hees of Kraft Heinz (NYT)
• Shake Shack's grand cashless experiment has failed (Eater)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• To reset operations, grocers should start with the customer (BCG)
• Amazon wants to know your waistline (WSJ)
• A fast-food problem: Where have all the teenagers gone (The Upshot)
• The life, death, and resurrection of the Canadian discount store (Buzzfeed)
• From the archives (1999): Walmart pays billions for British supermarket chain (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Amazon is taking over the world? Not in Europe (WSJ)
• The new food: Meet the startups racing to reinvent the meal (The Guardian)
• Build a reinvestment machine with zero-based budgeting (McKinsey)
• Vitamins are trendy. Vitamin stores aren't (Racked)
• Ocado's Scandi win can't hide its need for a buyer (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Amazon bringing 3,000 new tech jobs to Vancouver (CBC)
• Retail's other problem: Too few clerks in the store (WSJ)
• Now on offer at the supermarket: Freshly squeezed suppliers (Bloomberg)
• How Ferrero Rocher chocolates became a status symbol for immigrants (Thrillist)
• As dairy goes global, more farmers turn to futures and options (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Sainsbury's vows to slash prices after Asda merger (The Guardian)
• 'Amazon effect' stings consumer staples stocks as pricing woes mount (WSJ)
• Rexall to shutter 40 stores as pharmacy market faces pressure (Globe and Mail)
• Everything you should and should not feel guilty about buying groceries online (Epicurious)
• Free shipping isn't hurting Amazon (The Atlantic)