Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Walmart is said to explore options for Asda including IPO (Bloomberg)
• CVS is opening hundreds of SmileDirectClub shops in its stores (CNBC)
• Walmart to develop its own supply chain for Angus beef (WSJ)
• Walgreens is latest to raise smoking (and vaping) age to 21 (NYT)
• Plant based eating goes mainstream as Beyond Meat targets Canadian grocery shelves (CBC)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Beyond Meat details plans for initial public offering (NYT)
• America's biggest supermarket company struggles with online grocery upheaval (WSJ)
• How Sainsbury's Project Solar crashed down to earth (Bloomberg)
• Kraft Heinz taps new CEO, AB InBev's Miguel Patricio (CNBC)
• Lululemon plans to double men's business, expand internationally under new boss (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The cult Japanese retailer making billions by breaking the rules (Bloomberg)
• We now live in a world with customized shampoo (WSJ)
• Amazon, facing entrenched rivals, to shut China online store (Reuters)
• To woo shoppers, stores are accepting competitors' returns (WSJ)
• From the archives (1966): Great man with his groceries (Maclean's)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Meet the woman behind Amazon's explosive growth (Fast Company)
• Agile is not enough (MIT Sloan Management Review)
• Mapping the US gastronomic borders (The Pudding)
• Jack Ma again endorses extreme overtime as furor rages on (Bloomberg)
• Oh we don't sell food at this restaurant, we purvey provisions (McSweeney's)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Investing in retailer's most important assets (Bain)
• How a Long Island chef became a certified snail farmer (NYT)
• Retailer Fred's hires adviser as it tries to turn around business (WSJ)
• Agile in the consumer goods industry (McKinsey)
• Why you can't buy Pakistani flu remedy Johar Joshanda tea in the U.S. (Eater)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Why is Wegman's so great? Inside America's favourite grocery store (Bloomberg)
• Big Brother at the mall (WSJ)
• Personal chefs for everyone. Bespoke house calls in the digital age (NYT)
• New rules for M&A in consumer products (Bain)
• With a new CEO and new funding from Upfront, healthy prepared food delivery company service Territory looks to grow (Tech Crunch)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Booze dynasties control $70 billion of world's liquor wealth (Bloomberg)
• The ever-changing store (McKinsey)
• Consumer products: Now's the time to double down on China (Bain)
• Kellogg's new Pringles fail to make waves (WSJ)
• Warby Parker had a message. It's customers didn't care. Here's how it changed its message (Inc)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• What retail recovery? Malls under pressure as stores close (WSJ)
• Meal kits struggle to reach customers in supermarkets (Bloomberg)
• Walmart partners with subscription-based children's clothing startup Kidbox (Tech Crunch)
• The global diversity of french fry dips is a window into the way we eat today (Gastro Obscura)
• From the archives (2013): Canadian chocolate makers to pay $23.2 million fine in price-fixing lawsuit (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Inside Everlane's effort to remove new plastic from its supply chain (Fast Company)
• Department stores are dead? Nobody told Primark (Bloomberg)
• The coming obsolescence of animal meat (The Atlantic)
• 20 minutes with: Celebrated water sommelier Jessica Altieri (Barron's)
• Here's The Spoon's 2019 food robotics market map (The Spoon)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Rite Aid to stop selling e-cigarettes, citing surge in young users (NYT)
• 5G-connected cows test milking parlor of the future (Reuters)
• Inside the fake Amazon review complex (The Hustle)
• Best Buy, after turnaround, to switch leaders (WSJ)
• Fresh flour mills cater to consumers seeking whole, traceable baking ingredients (Financial Post)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Inside Shopify's vision of an e-commerce system to rival Amazon (Financial Post)
• Stop & Shop workers are on strike at over 240 stores in New England (NYT)
• What the grocery stores holding their own against Amazon are doing right (HBR)
• The nutrition study the $30B supplement industry doesn't want you to see (Ars Technica)
• Ulta Beauty's Canadian expansion plan adds more competition in crowded sector (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Jeff Bezos' 2018 Letter to Shareholders (Amazon)
• Wegmans tries its magic in NYC (Bloomberg)
• Walmart to refit 500 more stores in bid to lure online shoppers (FT)
• Campbell plans to sell fresh unit to former executive (WSJ)
• From the archives (1977): The flavor of General Foods (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The age of robot farmers (The New Yorker)
• Yogurt sales sour as options proliferate (WSJ)
• How did ice cream get so expensive (Eater)
• How to solve the plastic packaging paradox (BBC)
• Amazon workers are listening to what you tell Alexa (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Walmart rolls out the robots (WSJ)
• The oat milk shortage may soon be over (Bloomberg)
• The sweet success of the spiral-cut ham (NYT)
• Mexico's Walmart pressures suppliers on pricing, forcing some to ditch Amazon (Reuters)
• This invisible, protective coating on fruits and vegetables fights food waste (Fast Company)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How Asian-American farmers shape what America eats (Eater)
• Amazon Go faces unlikely challenge from checkout-free startup (Bloomberg)
• Staples steps into the future (Gartner L2)
• Amazon wants you to use Alexa to track health care (WSJ)
• Starboard backs down from proxy battle at Dollar Tree (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• The promise of targeted innovation (MIT Sloan Management Review)
• When Canadians were first introduced to No Name products (CBC)
• What health kick? Young Americans still thirst for alcopops (WSJ)
• The great sriracha battle is coming to America (Bloomberg)
• The outlandish success of Ollie's: A $5 billion retail empire that sells nothing online (Forbes)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• P&G faces backlash over diaper, sanitary waste (WSJ)
• Inside the Trader Joe's black market resale economy (Refinery29)
• Microsoft kills off the book store you probably didn't know existed (Ars Technica)
• Machine learning is making pesto even more delicious (MIT Technology Review)
• From the archives (2011): No Frills: The Atlantic strategy (Canadian Grocer)

Stephan's Thursday

• Sears went into bankruptcy - but its lavish rewards program won't quit (WSJ)
• Inside IKEA's lavish laboratory of foods (Gastro Obscura)
• Eating meat will be considered unthinkable 20 years from now (Vox)
• The Australian store where everything sold must be sent to China (Bloomberg)
• What every CEO needs to know about 'superstar' companies (McKinsey)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Creating better strategy: Why empathy matters (Knowledge@Wharton)
• Behold the beefless 'Impossible Whopper (NYT)
• Fresh deli cuts muscle out packaged meats (WSJ)
• Millennials are sick of drinking (The Atlantic)
• Nestle plans meat-free Incredible Burger in race against Burger King (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Fast times and fast delivery at today's high schools (WSJ)
• The enormous numbers behind Amazon's market reach (Bloomberg)
• Why the USDA hired artists to paint thousands of fruit (Gastro Obscura)
• Subway closings accelerate as cold cuts fail to draw in diners (Bloomberg)
• Why millions of dollars in federal grocery subsidies haven't lessened food insecurity in the North (CBC)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Meituan and Alibaba have reshaped food delivery in China (Bloomberg)
• Food Lion, other grocers will use AI for food suppliers (WSJ)
• Why self-checkout is and has always been the worst (Gizmodo)
• Are you ready to change your target customer (HBR)
• Can the world quench China's bottomless thirst for milk (The Guardian)