Best of Pax Westona: July 2018

• How an ex-cop rigged McDonald's Monopoly game and stole millions (The Daily Beast)
• The messy business of selling meal kits (WSJ)
• IKEA's strategy in India: If we build it, they will come (WSJ)
• The vindication of cheese, butter, and full-fat milk (The Atlantic)
• Best Buy should be dead, but is thriving in the age of Amazon (Bloomberg)
• Inside Fresh Direct's big bet to win the food delivery fight (WSJ)
• How e-commerce is transforming rural China (The New Yorker)
• Coming soon to a supermarket near you (NYT)
• Inside JD.com, the giant Chinese firm that could eat Amazon alive (Wired)
• Deciem, the upstart Canadian skin care company aiming for global domination (CBC)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How sellers trick Amazon to boost sales (WSJ)
• The zero-based cost revolution in retail (Bain)
• Seasonal tomatoes are out. Seasonal coffee is in (Bloomberg)
• Inside Beautycon, beauty's Super Bowl (NYT)
• How an ex-cop rigged McDonald's Monopoly game and stole millions (The Daily Beast)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Geospatial analytics for omnichannel retail (McKinsey)
• The messy business of selling meal kits (WSJ)
• 350 million diners fuel battle for China's food delivery crown (Bloomberg)
• Gene-edited plants and animals are GM foods, EU court rules (The Guardian)
• Talking to your boss about data (MIT)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Canadians want convenience when food shopping - and grocers are paying the price (The Globe and Mail)
• Waymo teams up with Walmart, Avis and others for short driverless rides (NYT)
• United Natural Foods to buy grocery-store chain Supervalu (WSJ)
• Zero-based productivity: The power of informed choices (McKinsey)
• From the archives (2011): Calvin McDonald, 39, helps Loblaw keep up with changing tastes (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The hidden health dangers of flavoured yogurt (Quartz)
• Chef'd is sold to a food consultancy (WSJ)
• The art of the Australian breakfast (NYT)
• Loblaw anticipates higher food prices soon due to trade war pressures (CBC)
• Benefits startup League Inc. raises $62 million in Telus, Weston-led venture deal (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Former Sears Canada boss Calvin McDonald named new CEO at Lululemon (CBC)
• 'Scraper' bots and the secret internet arms race (Wired)
• IKEA's strategy in India: If we build it, they will come (WSJ)
• Kroger shrugs at Prime Day sales numbers (Bloomberg)
• The 13-year-old who built a best-selling lemonade brand (BBC)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Your poke addiction won't drive tuna extinct (Bloomberg)
• New Tesco discount chain could launch as early as September (The Guardian)
• How Aldi gets away with mimicking big brands (Sydney Morning Herald)
• A two-year travesty comes to an end as Toblerone reverts to its original shape (Quartz)
• U.K. supermarket to have 'quieter hour' for people with autism (NYT) 

Stephan's Monday Picks

• The vindication of cheese, butter, and full-fat milk (The Atlantic)
• Best Buy should be dead, but is thriving in the age of Amazon (Bloomberg)
• How German winemakers are quietly taking over the world (WSJ)
• How sherry became the secret to great scotch (Atlas Obscura)
• JUST partners with European egg leader for manufacture and distribution (Food Dive)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Restaurants must embrace food delivery, and fast (Bloomberg)
• The demise of Toys 'R' Us is a warning (The Atlantic)
• Walmart may launch a video streaming service to battle Netflix, Amazon (Ars Technica)
• Inside Fresh Direct's big bet to win the food delivery fight (WSJ)
• From the archives (2007): Weston civilization (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Chef'd meal kit maker suspending business (WSJ)
• Fresh Direct prepares to battle Amazon and Walmart with new fulfillment centre (Food Dive)
• Cloudy with a chance of IKEA meatballs (Eater)
• There's a reason you're drinking so much Aperol spritz (NYT)
• The false tale of Amazon's industry-conquering juggernaut (Wired)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How e-commerce is transforming rural China (The New Yorker)
• Amazon foes Walmart and Microsoft deepen tech partnership (WSJ)
• How laundry is reducing America's carbon footprint (The Daily Beast)
• What is meat, anyway (Wired)
• Home to quinoa and acai berries, Peru has a new superfood (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The complex engineering of the simple hook that could make drone deliveries real (Wired)
• Pressure piles up on Carrefour's CEO as turnaround seen too slow (Bloomberg)
• Trucking industry facing driver shortage (CBC)
• Partnerships are central to the retail landscape's future (The Grocer)
• Soon there will be only one Blockbuster left in the United States (NYT)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Walmart weighs a bid from Capital One for credit cards (Bloomberg)
• P&G's challenge: Selling a product that women wish they didn't need (WSJ)
• In town with little water, Coca-Cola is everywhere. So is diabetes (NYT)
• How to lose your best employees (HBR)
• Tim Hortons plans 1500 store expansion in China (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Britain's online shopping boom is a bust for the high street (Bloomberg)
• After 16-year struggle with Seiyu, Walmart looks to be the next retailer to exit Japan (Japan Times)
• The new titans of retail: Emily Weiss and Katrina Lake (Forbes)
• Trail Mix Ventures, an outfit focused on wellness-obsessed millennials, just closed an $11 million debut fund (Tech Crunch)
• From the archives (1978): Loblaws opens first No Frills store (CBC)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Coming soon to a supermarket near you (NYT)
• One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate (The Guardian)
• Supermarkets deploy sausage stations, dad jokes to lure male shoppers (WSJ)
• Amazon Prime Day is proven to sell random gadgets. But will it work on cereal and cod (Financial Post)
• Accelerating digital innovation in retail (BCG)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• From G&T to Early Grey tea: a new wave of ice lollies for grownups (The Guardian)
• Brynwood Partners buys Pillsbury Doughboy from Smucker (Bloomberg)
• How a bacteria-detecting strip of plastic film could make best-before dates irrelevant (CBC)
• High-skilled white-collar work? Machines can do that too (NYT)
• Lidl USA: What went wrong and how it can recover (Forbes)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The secret price of pets (NYT)
• Inside the chaotic fancy food show, where grocery shops go to grocery shop (Bon Appetit)
• Robot grocery deliveries sound cool, but there are problems ahead (FT)
• How one couple turned grocery bagging into a fast growing business (LA Times)
• Waiter, there's a Bloody Mary in my chicken (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Inside JD.com, the giant Chinese firm that could eat Amazon alive (Wired)
• Tesco targets growing number of Britons who eat or dine alone (The Guardian)
• The cereal of the future misses the point of Dippin Dots (Washington Post)
• Bar by bar, Heineken battles AB InBev in Brazil (Reuters)
• Nestle sets sights on Edmonton's Champion Petfoods amid criticism from investors (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Deciem, the upstart Canadian skin care company aiming for global domination (CBC)
• A french fry gets soggy in 5 minutes. This company wants to keep it crispy for 60 (NYT)
• Amazon Go: The sequel (Geekwire)
• A toothpaste club? Colgate to invest in online subscription startup (WSJ)
• From the archives (2005): The interpreter (Fast Company)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The day Toys 'R' Us closed for good (NYT)
• Inside Target's top-secret test store (FastCo Design)
• Anti-pollution skin care is too expensive for the people most at risk (Racked)
• Why Amazon's push into prescription drugs isn't a guaranteed success (NYT)
• Why Amazon needs to do everything (WSJ)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Modern apothecary (MIT Technology Review)
• Dollar stores are thriving - but are they ripping off poor people (The Guardian)
• Bezos's big blunder: Amazon's Alexa is getting clobbered (Axios)
• Delivering Amazon packages to the top of the world (NYT)
• Target, Walmart automate more store tasks (WSJ)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Tesco and Carrefour to create long-term 'strategic partnership' (BBC)
• How Atul Gawande landed the most extraordinary job in health care (Stat)
• Amazon's delivery van network is a direct threat to UPS (Recode)
• Kroger is launching a fully driverless delivery service (The Verge)
• Amazon buys online pharmacy PillPack for $1 billion (WSJ)