Best of Pax Westona: June 2018

• The world's most ruthless food startup (Inc)
• Amazon, the brand buster (NYT)
• Alibaba v. Tencent: The battle for supremacy (Fortune)
• The leader's calendar (HBR)
• The tequila gold rush (WSJ)
• The new model for consumer goods (McKinsey)
• Grocery chains are being squeezed from all sides (WSJ)
• Meet the 'million-dollar palate' behind a flood of new foods (NYT)
• Agile to the rescue in consumer goods (BCG)
• Toys 'R' Us didn't have to die (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The world's most ruthless food startup (Inc)
• 'Cash is just grief': Why shops and bars want to make you pay by card (The Guardian)
• Chobani reclaims control of its finances (NYT)
• How many versions of a product to customers really want (HBR)
• From the archives (2009): Game changer in retailing, bar code turns 35 (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Is America ready to love cottage cheese again (NYT)
• Subscription box market faces fatigue (AdAge)
• The SEC has had its own questions about La Croix (WSJ)
• McDonalds wants to win breakfast by selling the best part of the muffin (Bloomberg)
• Welcome to Blaine, the town Amazon Prime built (The Verge)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Walmart-led blockchain effort seeks farm-to-grocery-aisle view of food supply chain (WSJ)
• Texas' favourite grocery store HEB opens taco restaurant (Eater)
• Former Toys 'R' Us CEO working on the retailers reboot (Bloomberg)
• Amazon's fashion service is now available to all Prime members (Recode)
• Conagra to buy Pinnacle for $8.1 billion to add frozen foods (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Short of workers, fast-food restaurants turn to robots (WSJ)
• The Casino Groupe and L'Oreal France unveil 'le drugstore parisien' (Groupe Casino)
• French group Danone's venture capital fund eyes 20-25 deals by 2025 (Reuters)
• Where have all of America's truck drivers gone (Bloomberg)
• San Francisco restaurants can't afford waiters so they're putting diners to work (NYT)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Amazon, the brand buster (NYT)
• Alibaba v. Tencent: The battle for supremacy (Fortune)
• Will Emergen-C keep me from getting sick (The Cut)
• Molson Coors the latest beermaker to consider adding buds to suds (Bloomberg)
• The company beating Amazon in grocery delivery (WSJ)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The leader's calendar (HBR)
• Can't anyone here cook anymore (WSJ)
• How Amazon became one of Washington's most powerful players (WSJ)
• General Mills bets on yogurt with less sugar to spur growth (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2016): Why La Croix sparkling water is suddenly everywhere (Vox)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The tequila gold rush (WSJ)
• SoftBank: inside the 'Wild West' $100bn fund shaking up the tech world (FT)
• Carrefour teams up with Chinese tech company for first connected store (AdWeek)
• Alibaba is updating 400 RT-Marts with tech (Retail Dive)
• Berkshire, Amazon, JP Morgan pick surgeon to lead new healthcare company (WSJ)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The death of supply chain management (HBR)
• The new model for consumer goods (McKinsey)
• VCs serve up a large helping of cash to startups disrupting food (Tech Crunch)
• Holt Renfrew resizes strategy to focus on core markets, brands (Globe and Mail)
• Costco's new avocados will stay ripe for twice as long (Eater)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• UPS's $20 billion problem: Operations stuck in the 20th century (WSJ)
• Google to invest more than $550 million in Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com (Reuters)
• As shipping costs soar, supply chains get a makeover (WSJ)
• Unlocking the next wave of growth by unifying creativity and analytics (McKinsey)
• To compete with Amazon, big-name consumer brands have to become more like it (HBR)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• In China, a picture of how warehouse jobs can vanish (Axios)
• Why are grocery retailers teaming up with tech giants (Reuters)
• Amazon's clever machines are moving from the warehouse to headquarters (Bloomberg)
• What Walmart was debating before buying Flipkart (Quartz)
• Size becomes a handicap for global food giants (WSJ)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Phasing out the checkout line: Retailers race to make shopping more seamless (CBC)
• Grocery chains are being squeezed from all sides (WSJ)
• The spectacular stock market rise of an Indian budget supermarket chain (Quartz)
• Pivot to traditional: Direct-to-consumer brands sour on Facebook ads (Digiday)
• From the archives (2015): Inside Amazon: Wrestling big ideas in a bruising workplace (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Debt and groceries are an unappetizing mix (WSJ)
• Carrefour partners with Google for digital push (FT)
• Brewed awakening: Inside the nasty proxy battle for DavidsTea (Financial Post)
• Microsoft takes aim at Amazon with push for checkout-free retail (Reuters)
• Amazon is still sorting out its grocery strategy (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Meet the 'million-dollar palate' behind a flood of new foods (NYT)
• Agile to the rescue in consumer goods (BCG)
• Home Depot sets $1.2 billion supply chain overhaul (WSJ)
• Speed and precision as the new supply chain drivers (McKinsey)
• Why meal kits are moving offline (Eater)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• A stampede of meatless products overrun grocery store meat cases (WSJ)
• Amazon attacked for Hunan working conditions (South China Morning Post)
• Battle escalates between Tim Hortons and franchisees (Globe and Mail)
• Our misplaced mania for 'healthy' snacks (WSJ)
• Amazon is getting ready to crush La Croix (Quartz)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• How e-commerce with drone delivery is taking off in China (The Economist)
• A year after Amazon devours Whole Foods, rivals are pursuing countermoves (WSJ)
• America's largest private company reboots a 153-year old strategy (Bloomberg)
• HelloFresh jumps on bandwagon to sell meat kits in grocery stores (The Spoon)
• Why the frozen food aisle is hot right now (WSJ)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Jessica Alba's Honest Company gets $200 million investment (WSJ)
• Toys 'R' Us didn't have to die (Bloomberg)
• What's the most (and least) popular flavor of La Croix (Priceonomics)
• The right way for food companies to buy their way to growth (WSJ)
• From the archives (2016): Leading and governing the customer-centric organization (McKinsey)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• JAB still craving deals despite Pret a Manger takeover (FT)
• Campbell Soup needs a rule-breaker CEO (Fast Company)
• Walmart's experimental Amazon Prime competitor aims for Alexa next (MIT Technology Review)
• Walmart sheds majority stake in Brazil operation (WSJ)
• How AI helped one retailer reach new customers (HBR)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Unilever looks to be stepping up its beauty regime (FT)
• The UK plans to ban grocery stores from selling candy in checkout aisles (Quartz)
• How ketchup revolutionized how food is grown, processed and regulated (Smithsonian Mag)
• Food companies can't figure out what Americans want to eat (WSJ)
• What 20 years of Jeff Bezos's shareholder letters can teach you about becoming a top performer (Inc)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Alibaba made a driverless robot that runs 9mph to deliver packages (The Verve)
• Our food supply chain is killing us (The Outline)
• Walmart's war on waste (Canadian Grocer)
• HelloFresh to sell meal kits in Giant Food, Stop & Shop stores (WSJ)
• UK march of discounters Aldi and Lidl abating, say analysts (FT)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• How beauty companies price lipstick (Racked)
• Your next glass of wine might be a fake - and you'll love it (Wired)
• Breaking away: The secrets to scaling analytics (McKinsey)
• Coffee waste is now fetching a 480% premium over coffee itself (Bloomberg)
• Inside Tyson Foods' efforts to adopt the startup mentality (Food Dive)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Mary Meeker's 2018 Internet Trends (KPCB)
• Walmart says it will pay for its workers to earn college degrees (NYT)
• Kroger puts its data science prowess to work for brands (Supermarket News)
• India's biggest competitors to Walmart and Amazon? Mom and pop (WSJ)
• From the archives (2016): Germany's intensely private and immensely wealth Reimann family (FT)