Best of Pax Westona: February 2020

• How KitchenAid and Le Creuset took over millennial kitchens (The Atlantic)
• The rise of mouth tech (Wired)
• How vaping became a public health crisis (New York Magazine)
• The lucrative, largely unregulated, and widely misunderstood world of vaping (California Sunday Magazine)
• How Glossier turned itself into a billion-dollar beauty brand (Wired)
• Why it only costs $10K to 'own' a Chick-Fil-A franchise (The Hustle)
• Digital disruption at the grocery store (McKinsey)
• Tampon wars: The battle to overthrow the Tampax empire (The Guardian)
• Costco capitalism (Bryan Lehrer)
• How the KitchenAid stand mixer achieved icon status (Eater)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Walmart in discussions to sell stake in Asda (BBC)
• Why fast fashion is facing an inflection point (Rita McGrath)
• Walmart is quietly working on an Amazon Prime competitor (Recode)
• It's easy to get people to drink less soda (Fast Company)
• From the archives (2008): The testing of Michael McCain (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Walmart takes on CVS, Amazon with low-price health care clinics (Bloomberg)
• Walmart to combine online and store buying teams (WSJ)
• Men's shaving upstart goes from web to Walgreens (Bloomberg)
• Corporate monopolies are hiding in your grocery aisle (Vox)
• Kellogg's chief growth officer on the future of packaged food (McKinsey)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Glass, once the king of packaging, seeks a comeback (WSJ)
• Sephora's head of stores talks expansion (Retail Dive)
• Amazon expands physical footprint and bigger cashier-less stores (Reuters)
• How the KitchenAid stand mixer achieved icon status (Eater)
• In the midst of a border crisis, cooking is about more than survival (Bon Appetit)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The a16z Marketplace 100 (Andreesen Horowitz)
• Dying malls seek second life as entertainment destination (Curbed)
• Crop app Cropster wants to save coffee and the global food supply (Bloomberg)
• Everything you wanted to know about the drugstore (New York Magazine)
• Cargill to challenge Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods with new plant-based burger (Reuters)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• FreshDirect stages a comeback (NYT)
• The gas station M&A frenzy looks like a bubble (Bloomberg)
• The robot in aisle five isn't stalking you (WSJ)
• What happens to your mail-order mattress after you return it (538)
• The U.S.-Iran pistachio war is heating up (Businessweek)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The weirdest subway restaurant in America (WSJ)
• Softbank's $375 million bet on pizza went really bad, really fast (Bloomberg)
• Costco capitalism (Bryan Lehrer)
• Blue Apron eyes options including a sale (WSJ)
• From the archives (1955): The barnum of the supermarkets (Macleans)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Restoration Hardware catalogs won't die (The Atlantic)
• Food delivery firms put mergers, IPOs on the menu (WSJ)
• The end of shopping's boundaries (McKinsey)
• The mystery of the $2,000 Ikea shopping bag (HBR)
• Grocers wrestle control of shelf space from struggling food giants (WSJ)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Tampon wars: The battle to overthrow the Tampax empire (The Guardian)
• Is CPG doomed (Collaborative Fund)
• Dairies are desperate to get Americans to drink milk again (Bloomberg)
• Target's Shipt delivery app workers describe culture of fear, retaliation (Vice)
• Why we're incentivized by discounts and surcharges (HBR)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Milk's next frontier (Globe and Mail)
• Digital disruption at the grocery store (McKinsey)
• How ultra-processed food took over your shopping basket (The Guardian)
• Never mind the internet. Here's what's killing malls (NYT)
• P&G is developing its next big thing in a room buzzing with flies (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Same-day delivery: Ready for takeoff (McKinsey)
• Why the 'business case' for diversity isn't working (Fast Company)
• Japan's obsession with the Mont Blanc (Taste)
• Many private equity-backed grocery chains buckle under debt and pricing pressure (WSJ)
• From the archives (2015): Inside London Drugs: B.C.'s most-loved brand (BC Business)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Why it only costs $10K to 'own' a Chick-Fil-A franchise (The Hustle)
• How Amazon is causing us to die in trademarks (NYT)
• Why catalogs are making a comeback (HBR)
• Why Amazon is betting on stores (Quartz)
• Outdoor retailer REI is building the most outdoorsy HQ ever (WSJ)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Why do modern tomatoes taste so bad (Wired)
• Softbank-backed Brandless shutters less than 2 years after investment (Bloomberg)
• Schick owner abandons takeover of Harry's following FTC suit to block it (WSJ)
• The food we'll eat on the journey to Mars (Wired)
• Retail apocalypse hits high end malls, leading to landlord deal (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• When data creates competitive advantage (HBR)
• How Glossier turned itself into a billion-dollar beauty brand (Wired)
• Rich sales boost coffee creamers (WSJ)
• How Google got its employees to eat vegetables (One Zero)
• Hard coffee, hard kombucha - experts say no beverage is safe from alcohol (WP)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Dunkaroos are back. Why? (NYT)
• Why grocery stores have tiny, kid-sized carts (The Atlantic)
• Meal kit makers jostle for a slice of Canada's growing, competitive industry (CBC)
• Financing the transformation in fashion (BCG)
• The new social contract in the 21st century (McKinsey)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How vaping became a public health crisis (New York Magazine)
• The lucrative, largely unregulated, and widely misunderstood world of vaping (California Sunday Magazine)
• Nestle invests $200 million in Aimmune after peanut drug allergy approval (Reuters)
• Canadian antitrust officials probe farm giants (WSJ)
• From the archives (1986): Why Winnipeg makes a great test market (CBC)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Does your razor need a gender (WSJ)
• Bending the cost curve in bricks and mortar retail (McKinsey)
• Ikea's web app brings interior design to Soviet-era apartments (Bloomberg)
• Latest front in food delivery: Kitchens in empty malls (WSJ)
• Scientists are literally spinning up lab-grown meat (Wired)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How private equity buried Payless (NYT)
• Tim Hortons loyalty program raises questions for franchisees (Financial Post)
• IKEA promises new data controls for customers (WSJ)
• The future of food is on Instagram (One Zero)
• The other fake meat tycoon is coming for China's pork (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The drive toward sustainability in packaging (McKinsey)
• Behind Amazon's HQ2 fiasco: Jeff Bezos was jealous of Elon Musk (Bloomberg)
• In fast-food war, victory goes to those who have the little chickens (LA Times)
• Can design thinking save business (WSJ)
• The new business of garbage (HBR)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Maker of Lipton cools on tea (WSJ)
• How chaos at chain pharmacies is putting patients at risk (NYT)
• How KitchenAid and Le Creuset took over millennial kitchens (The Atlantic)
• The rise of mouth tech (Wired)
• Beyond Meat products pulled from Tim Hortons' Canadian locations (Financial Post)