Best of Pax Westona: August 2018

• The freshest ideas are in small grocery stores (NYT)
• Meet the kinder, gentler - and Canadian - face of Tim Hortons (CBC)
• The decline and fall of Diet Coke (The New Yorker)
• Nestle has a plan to bring customers back to 'Big Food' (Washington Post)
• How Dollar General took over rural America (The Guardian)
• Food halls are the new food truck (Eater)
• Amazon's ripple effect on grocery industry: Rivals stock up on start-ups (NYT)
• Beyond soda: How and why your beverage options are exploding (WSJ)
• Paul Singer, doomsday investor (The New Yorker)
• The rise of giant consumer startups that said no to the money (Recode)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The rise of giant consumer startups that said no to the money (Recode)
• Campbell Soup to sell international, fresh food units (Reuters)
• The long, monstrous reign of the Red Delicious apple is ending (NYT)
• Nestle wants your DNA to sell you supplements (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2001): Two CEOs dined, one got apple pie (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Why adding more products isn't always the best way to grow (HBR) 
• JD turns to Google, Walmart to build global e-commerce empire (Bloomberg)
• Stadium food is suddenly getting cheaper (Eater)
• Whole Foods is starting to steal Trader Joe's shoppers (Bloomberg)
• With its new grocery concept, Meijer thinks big by scaling down (Food Dive)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• As Sears withers, its former stores fuel a new fortune (NYT)
• Dull skin? Restless sleep? There's a drink for that (WSJ)
• Here's the ugly truth behind the ugly produce movement (New Food Economy)
• The world's first self-driving grocery delivery cares are on the road in San Jose (Fast Company)
• Rising 'near me' searches show why grocers must improve their search engine rankings (Progressive Grocer)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Brands try to convince new generations products aren't just for their parents (NYT)
• Paul Singer, doomsday investor (The New Yorker)
• Beyond soda: How and why your beverage options are exploding (WSJ)
• What do you know, retailers are figuring it out (Bloomberg)
• Natural Grocers shrugs off Amazon-Whole Foods threat (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• What will the world eat in the next decade (Bloomberg)
• Taking agile beyond the tipping point (BCG)
• Kroger says it is phasing out its plastic bags (NPR)
• There's only one way to break into China's crowded retail market (HBR)
• How the coffee industry is building a sustainable supply chain in an unstable region (Kellogg Insight)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Online shopping is making us accumulate more junk (The Atlantic)
• China's consumption downgrade: Skip avocados, cocktails and kids (NYT)
• How analytics and digital will drive next-generation retail merchandising (McKinsey)
• Target posts its best quarterly results in more than a decade (WSJ)
• From the archives (2003): The card up their sleeve (The Guardian)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Amazon's ripple effect on grocery industry: Rivals stock up on start-ups (NYT)
• How direct-to-consumer brands are reshaping marketing (Marketing Week)
• Contact lenses are a surprising source of pollution (Scientific American)
• Beyond procurement: Transforming indirect spending in retail (McKinsey)
• Serta Simmons just merged with bed-in-a-box startup Tuft & Needle (Fast Company)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Welcome to checkout-free retail. Don't mind all the cameras (Wired)
• Tyson Foods to acquire Keystone Foods in $2.16 billion deal (WSJ)
• Farfetch, online retailer, plans to go public as luxury e-commerce grows (NYT)
• Air Canada-led consortium to buy back Aeroplan (CBC)
• The $29 billion battle to own how America sleeps is heating up (Fast Company)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How subscription business models are changing business and investing (25iq)
• The inside story of how McDonald's invented the Quarter Pounder (Fast Company)
• Strawberry jam: Urban farming startups tackle a problem crop (WSJ)
• Walmart eyes virtual reality shopping system (Bloomberg)
• Pepsi to buy SodaStream for $3.2B in shift to healthier drinks (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Americans are spending like crazy at restaurants (Bloomberg)
• DoorDash raises another $250M, nearly triples valuation to $4B (Tech Crunch)
• The benefits of an engaged, empowered workforce (MIT Sloan)
• What if the museum of ice cream is the future of retail (Bloomberg)
• Bribes, backdoor deals, and pay to play: How rosé took over (Bon Appetit)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Constellation Brands invests $5B in Canopy Growth (CBC)
• Firms that bossed agriculture for a century face new threat: Farmers (WSJ)
• Food halls are the new food truck (Eater)
• Walmart just put Amazon no notice (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2017): Aldo shoe empire founder donates $25 million to McGill for new retail management school (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Casper, a web pioneer, to open 200 stores (WSJ)
• The Super Bowl of beekeeping (NYT)
• Drugstores, in-store pharmacies push for right to sell cannabis (The Globe and Mail)
• Playing catch-up with Walmart, Amazon offers grocery pickup at Whole Foods (NYT) 
• Credit card firms to trim merchant fees, but retailers group 'underwhelmed' (CBC)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Coca-Cola invests in Body Armor as it chases Gatorade (WSJ)
• Kroger partners with Alibaba in China grocery sales venture (Reuters)
• More recycling won't solve plastic pollution (Scientific American)
• Sears CEO bids $470 million for Kenmore, home improvement units (Bloomberg)
• Alibaba eyes revamp in food sector (China Daily)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How Dollar General took over rural America (The Guardian)
• Kraft Heinz thinks healthy (WSJ)
• Banks and retailers are tracking how you type, swipe, and tap (NYT)
• Activist Elliott Management to push Nielsen Holdings to sell (WSJ)
• As Barnes & Noble struggles to find footing, founder takes heat (NYT)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Hungry for growth, food makers seek new flavor of CEO (Reuters)
• Third Point, Campbell heir push soup maker to sell (WSJ)
• The gulp war (Eater)
• Costco takes on La Croix with new sparkling water flavors (People)
• 5 trends reshaping retail (Retail Dive)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Rite Aid and Albertsons agree to call off merger in face of opposition (NYT)
• The primal pleasure and brutal history of sugar (Eater)
• Walmart co-leads $500M investment in Chinese online grocery grocery service Dada-JD Daojia (Tech Crunch)
• Petco partners with Canadian Tire (Retail Dive)
• From the archives (2015): How Indra Nooyi turned design thinking into strategy (HBR)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• A guide to Walmart's ragtag alliances against Amazon (Bloomberg)
• Ikea opens first India store, tweaking products but not vibe (NYT)
• The reality behind voice shopping hype (The Information)
• Nestle has a plan to bring customers back to 'Big Food' (Washington Post)
• From Amazon to Alibaba, grocers' agony is endless (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The $300 million plan to farm salmon in the middle of the ocean (Bloomberg)
• Albertsons teams with VC firm on tech incubator (Supermarket News)
• Walmart to launch Everlane rival (Business of Fashion)
• JD launches its first international unmanned store in Indonesia (Pandaily)
• Amazon and Walmart's rivalry is reshaping how we'll buy everything in the future (The Verge)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The decline and fall of Diet Coke (The New Yorker)
• Uniqlo has a vest vending machine in the San Francisco airport (Racked)
• Nestle experiments with tracking Gerber baby food on the blockchain (WSJ)
• The surprising psychology of dieting and plate design (Fast Company)
• Patron made tequila top-shelf. Will Bacardi dilute it (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• America's love affair with beer is on the rocks (WSJ)
• Standard Cognition is first Amazon Go to rival to unveil deal with stores (Fast Company)
• Prices for canned goods about to go up in Canada as tariffs start to bite (CBC)
• Third Point seeks allies to put pressure on Campbell Soup (Reuters)
• From the archives (2017): Who killed Sears Canada (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Meet the kinder, gentler - and Canadian - face of Tim Hortons (CBC)
• Kroger to launch grocery delivery service (WSJ)
• The freshest ideas are in small grocery stores (NYT)
• How Everlane hacked your wardrobe (The New Yorker)
• The future of retail (Trend Watching)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Nike's plan to survive the retail apocalypse: Go direct to consumers (Quartz)
• America's most loved brands 2018 (Morning Consult) 
• How grocers buy better for growth (Bain)
• How Big Food drives impulse buys online (Food Dive)
• The internet is irrationally hyped about Panera's double bread bowl (Eater)