Best of Pax Westona: March 2019

• Inside one baker's mission to transform Canada's bread loaves (Financial Post)
• Is this the death rattle of mail-order meal kits (Eater)
• The Aldi effect: How one company changed the way Britain shops (The Guardian)
• How Sears lost the American shopper (WSJ)
• What is Amazon (Zach Kanter)
• Death of the calorie (The Economist)
• Who still buys Wite-Out, and why (The Atlantic)
• How Big Tobacco hooked children on sugary drinks (NYT)
• The global zipper war is heating up (Fast Company)
• How Bob's Red Mill Company became a gluten-free giant ahead of its time (NPR)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Why arugula is the best leafy green (The Atlantic)
• It won't be an egg that kills you (Bloomberg)
• Men ditch suits, and retailers struggle to adapt (WSJ)
• Walmart and the push to put workers on company boards (The New Yorker)
• From the archives (2013): Tim Hortons' double dribble (Macleans)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Why Altria bet on Juul, the vaping upstart aiming to kill cigarettes (WSJ)
• 'Amazon is a threat' but IKEA's digital chief says she has a plan (CNBC)
• This Red Bull rival is now the top-performing drinks company (Bloomberg)
• How Bob's Red Mill Company became a gluten-free giant ahead of its time (NPR)
• Can Amazon reinvent the traditional grocery store (Knowledge@Wharton)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Nearly all Americans fail to eat enough of this superfood (Vox)
• Amazon to Whole Foods online delivery customers: we're out of celery, how's kale (WSJ)
• Some Shoppers Drug Mart staff say they're fed up with pushing self-checkout (CBC)
• Big Pharma's defense of higher drug prices doesn't add up (The Atlantic)
• Rent the Runway joins Glossier in the elite club of female-founded unicorns (Fortune)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks:

• Walmart builds a secret weapon to battle Amazon (WSJ)
• Most Amazon brands are duds, not disruptors (Bloomberg)
• Cottage cheese is the next Greek yogurt (The Atlantic)
• The unlikely partnership that may determine the future of meat (Vox)
• Dollarama's growth slows after competition forces it to keep a lid on price increases (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• A winning growth formula for dairy (McKinsey)
• The global zipper war is heating up (Fast Company)
• As food delivery firms court smaller markets, new hurdles emerge (WSJ)
• Japan convenience stores pressed to end 24-7 model amid labor crunch (Reuters)
• Starbucks will anchor the new $400 million food-focused Valor Siren Ventures fund (Tech Crunch)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How Big Tobacco hooked children on sugary drinks (NYT)
• Sainsbury's to publish price cut data if Asda merger goes ahead (The Guardian)
• The clever way Walmart is trying to beat Amazon (Fast Company)
• The first gene-edited food is now being served (Wired)
• From the archives (2017): Hot, sticky, and sweet: Who knew you could learn so much about Southern identity just by thinking - really hard - about doughnuts (Bitter Southerner)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Data becomes cash crop for Big Agriculture (Bloomberg)
• Death of the calorie (The Economist)
• Glossier tops billion dollar valuation with latest funding (WSJ)
• Who still buys Wite-Out, and why (The Atlantic)
• DSW aims to expand Canadian stores in fast-changing shoe industry (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Supercharging retail sales through geospatial analytics (McKinsey)
• The rise of coffee connoisseur culture (The New Yorker)
• New York City goes to war against flushable wipes (Bloomberg)
• The toxic truth about modern food (The Guardian)
• Death by a thousand cuts: Where electronic health records went wrong (Fortune)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• What is Amazon (Zach Kanter)
• Millennials tried to kill it, but tinned fish is making a comeback (Bloomberg)
• For food delivery fans, saving time is worth the cost (WSJ)
• How chickpeas became so popular in America (The Atlantic)
• Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart customers say they were forced to use self-checkout (CBC)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• How Sears lost the American shopper (WSJ)
• Amazon's private label odyssey (Retail Dive)
• Big Coffee has a problem as craft roasters cut out the middleman (Bloomberg)
• The LeBron factor: Who drives wine trends today (WSJ)
• Under growing pressure, DoorDash asks drivers how to make things better (Fast Company)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How CPG companies can catch up as online sales take off (BCG)
• Walmart's food delivery challenges: patchwork of drivers, tolls, crowded aisles (WSJ)
• Why urban millennials love Uniqlo (The Atlantic)
• EBay is the Un-Amazon, for better and worse (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2001): Ralston Purina finds new owner with Nestle (CBC)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Deep pockets alone can't save India's online grocery retailers (Quartz)
• Do supermarkets know more about us than we do (BBC)
• DoorDash bests GrubHub, UberEats in on-demand food delivery (Fortune)
• Big Beauty taps black-owned startups' loyal customers (WSJ)
• Meet the billionaire who defied Amazon and built Wish, the world's most downloaded e-commerce app (Forbes)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Malls and retailers look to co-working startups to fill vacant space (Globe and Mail)
• Fast-growth chickens produce new industry woe: 'spaghetti meat' (WSJ)
• Why US baby food sales are down (Quartz)
• Tonight's dinner? In a cooler-sized robot that knows where you live (WSJ)
• Social spin doctor: Kind Bar's Daniel Lubetzky builds a $1.5 billion fortune on do-gooder rhetoric (Forbes)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Why do we hate decaf so much (Vox)
• Disruptive technology may change the whiskey industry (The Economist)
• The oddly named energy bar that rocketed to the moon (Gastro Obscura)
• The woes and wins of one man's first Seniors Day (Globe and Mail)
• Why food delivery companies want to create super-users (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• How Munchery's high hopes led to its decline and fall (Fast Company)
• The changing nature of strategy (Bain)
• The people who eat the same meal every day (The Atlantic)
• Amazon is closing its pop-up stores as its retail strategy evolves (NYT)
• Consumers love food delivery. Restaurants and grocers hate it (WSJ)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The world's last Blockbuster has no plans to close (NYT)
• We're living in a golden age of classy pork rinds (WSJ)
• The race to make a lab-grown steak (MIT Technology Review)
• How badly are we being ripped of on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all (LA Times)
• From the archives (2012): Kraft to split itself in two (The Guardian)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The Aldi effect: How one company changed the way Britain shops (The Guardian)
• What the wine industry understands about connecting with customers (HBR)
• Amazon, long seen as a threat to malls, is now a hot tenant (WSJ)
• How Allbirds took on adidas and Nike big shoe duopoly (Wired)
• Target CEO: "New grocery structure brings "significant benefits" (Grocery Dive)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Emily Weiss's Glossier Play will be the first in a series of brand offshoots (WSJ)
• Face mask craze creates Korean billionaire with Goldman backing (Bloomberg)
• Saks takes back Fifth Avenue (Fortune)
• We have to fix fashion if we want to survive the climate crisis (Fast Company)
• Trader Joe's cauliflower gnocchi deserves its cult following (Vice)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How AI is making supermarkets less exhausting (WSJ)
• Tyson bets on omnivores with new alternative protein business (Bloomberg)
• Dairy farms are in crisis - and it could change Wisconsin forever (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Erratic hours are the norm for workers in retailing. Can Los Angeles buck the trend (LA Times)
• Canadian retailers brace for rocky year as consumers curb spending, economy slows (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Amazon to launch new grocery store business (WSJ)
• Is this the death rattle of mail-order meal kits (Eater)
• Perdue promotes Niman Ranch head in bid to gain premium shoppers (Bloomberg)
• Amazon discontinues its quirky Dash buttons (Engadget)
• Big birds are so 2017. The money is now in smaller, tender chicken (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Inside one baker's mission to transform Canada's bread loaves (Financial Post)
• Walmart joins Amazon in quest for ad dollars (WSJ)
• M&S agrees on £750 food delivery deal with Ocado (The Guardian)
• What's behind the rise in retailer loyalty program revamps (Retail Dive)
• From the archives (2007): Strategy's strategist: An interview with Richard Rumelt (McKinsey)