Best of Pax Westona: September 2019

• Service jobs should be - and can be - middle-class jobs (HBR)
• Facebook Marketplace: The wild west of e-commerce (WSJ)
• How the plastic bottle went from miracle container to hated garbage (National Geographic)
• An interview with Alibaba chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang (McKinsey)
• A shadowy industry group shapes food policy around the world (NYT)
• A new theory of obesity (Scientific American)
• Was the Gap ever cool (NYT)
• Can a burger help solve climate change (The New Yorker)
• The Uniqlo story (SCMP)
• Buying birth control online is a peek into the future of modern medicine (MIT TR)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Walmart received outside interest in JetBlack unit (Bloomberg)
• The missing ingredient in Kraft Heinz's restructuring (HBR)
• For the McCain empire, climate change is serious business (FP)
• Supermarkets in France are opening on Sundays without workers (Bloomberg)
• Global food retailers join coalition to to slash rate of food waste (Supermarket News)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Best Buy sees health care as the retailer's next 'big thing' (Bloomberg)
• McKinsey to start selling underwear and makeup (FT)
• McDonald's to test plant-based burgers in Canada (NYT)
• Buying birth control online is a peek into the future of modern medicine (MIT TR)
• From the archives (2000): Webvan to acquire HomeGrocer.com for $1.2 billion (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson on work, joy, and coffee (HBR)
• Bezos's big van order signals Amazon-backed Rivian is 'for real' (Bloomberg)
• Amazon's latest copycat brand: Allbirds (Quartz)
• Lululemon set to wind down Ivivva kids business (CNBC)
• McDonald's is now accepting job applications through Alexa and Google Assistant (The Verge)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Kraft Heinz: Two food giants that haven't gone so well together (NYT)
• Federal prosecutors conducting criminal probe of Juul (WSJ)
• Boston Beer Truly hard seltzer drives sales, not Sam Adams (Bloomberg)
• How health food invaded the beauty aisle (Vox)
• Ocado co-founder rejects 'ludicrous' espionage claims (FT)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Can a burger help solve climate change (The New Yorker)
• The Uniqlo story (SCMP)
• Is the new meat any better than the old meat (NYT)
• Sweetgreen's tech focus helps push valuation to $1.6 billion (WSJ)
• For recovering bankers, the restaurant life beckons (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Monday PIcks

• Inside the supermarket strategy to lure customers away from restaurants (FP)
• My quest for lunchbox supremacy (NYT)
• The 'smart' kitchen is very stupid (Wired)
• Japanese milk bread is coming for your lunch (Bloomberg)
• Beer is turning industrial streets into thriving neighbourhoods (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• A Montreal food diary (The Ringer)
• How Brexit could break Britain's food chain (NYT)
• Algorithms are people (The Atlantic)
• Tim Horton's pulls Beyond Meat products from Canadian locations (CBC)
• From the archives (2015): Wanted: new Morrison's CEO: Same as old one, but without all the mistakes (The Guardian)

Stephan’s Thursday Picks

• A new theory of obesity (Scientific American)
• Why consolidating brands can be a strategic mistake (HBR)
• Kraft Heinz shares fall after 3G cuts stake (3G)
• It’s time to kill free return shipping (Fast Company)
• Was the Gap ever cool (NYT)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Amazon changed search algorithm in ways that boosted own products (WSJ)
• Ocado's new offer to investors: quinoa with added robotics (The Guardian)
• Aldi plans to open a new supermarket every week (BBC)
• Baking isn't hard when you've got a library card (Eater)
• AB InBev launches second Asia IPO attempt, targets up to $6.6 billion (Reuters)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Eataly finally lands in Toronto (Globe and Mail)
• A shadowy industry group shapes food policy around the world (NYT)
• Slow growth takes shine off Tesco budget chain Jack's a year on (The Guardian)
• J Crew plans IPO spinoff of Madewell brand (WSJ)
• Instacart hires Amazon exec as chief revenue officer (Supermarket News)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Amazon will let anyone answer your Alexa questions now (Fast Company)
• Walmart will take its Amazon Prime competitor nationwide (Fortune)
• Interview: Tim Richards, founder of Vue cinemas (The Sunday Times)
• Kroger's sales rise after digital investments (WSJ)
• Meat industry says China's pork, beef ban costing it $100 million (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How grocery stores saved food from Hurricane Dorian (CBC)
• America's long history of resisting self-service (Bloomberg)
• Forever 21 plans to file for bankruptcy as early as Sunday (WSJ)
• An interview with Alibaba chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang (McKinsey)
• From the archives (1999): Anthony Bourdain: Don't eat before reading this (The New Yorker)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Wendy's puts breakfast on the menu again (WSJ)
• Purdue Pharma settles opioids case (NYT)
• We need more startups that don't prioritize growth above all else (HBR)
• StarKist hit with $100 million fine in tuna price fixing case (WSJ)
• Alibaba's new chairman says he has to reinvent retail before someone else does (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Amazon has 30,000 open jobs (NYT)
• Can India's richest man take on Amazon and Walmart (WP)
• Big Ag wants a cut of booming fake-meat business (Reuters)
• Ahold Delhaize searches for new CFO to boost sales, cut costs (WSJ)
• Toys 'R' Us Canada to update stores to cope with changing consumer tastes (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The world wastes tons of food. A grocery 'happy hour' is one answer (NYT)
• Management: So much  more than a science (Rotman Management)
• The formidable challenges of rejuvenating M&S (FT)
• How the Le Creuset dutch oven rose to icon status (Eater)
• Half-bottles of wine offer value and variety. Why aren't we drinking them (VinePair)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Founded in 1670, Hudson's Bay chases relevance (Bloomberg)
• How high tech is transforming one of the oldest jobs: Farming (NYT)
• Even at $529 a shot, Japanese whiskey is selling out fast (WSJ)
• The two most mysterious words in modern shopping (The Atlantic)
• There's a $218 billion design problem sitting in your fridge right now (Fast Company)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How the plastic bottle went from miracle container to hated garbage (National Geographic)
• The next hot job: Pretending to be a robot (WSJ)
• The human cost of Amazon's fast, free shipping (NYT)
• The future of the middle class depends on upgrading service jobs (CityLab)
• From the archives (2001): The paradox of brands (HBR)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Retail in Australia: A ghost town (McKinsey)
• Facebook Marketplace: The wild west of e-commerce (WSJ)
• New ways to make vertical farming stack up (The Economist)
• Activist investor Jana pushes for sale of Bloomin Brands again (Bloomberg)
• Drone test flight successfully delivers prescription drugs in Canada for first time (CBC)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How a tweet led to a shortage at Popeyes (NYT)
• The war on sugar hits the juice box (WSJ)
• Rose berries have arrived (The New Yorker)
• Meat companies aren't worried about demand amid vegan burger boom (Bloomberg)
• Retailers struggled during boom times. What happens if there's a recession (WP)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• India's restaurants rebel against food delivery apps (NYT)
• Walmart's robot army has arrived (Fast Company)
• Service jobs should be - and can be - middle-class jobs (HBR)
• The cost of next-day delivery (BuzzFeed)
• What the food movement misses about poverty and inequality (The Breakthrough)