Best of Pax Westona: March 2020

• There's an entire industry dedicated to making foods crispy, and it is wild (Bon Appetit)
• How the 'New Nordic' is reshaping the food world (The Guardian)
• Planet plastic (Rolling Stone)
• Why restaurants are closing (The Counter)
• Get ready for the second order effects of the new DNVB economy (Medium)
• Why all the Warby Parker clones are now imploding (Marker)
• Working wonders (MIT Technology Review)
• How Jose Andres plans to feed the world during the COVID-19 pandemic (Time)
• The autopsy of the experience economy (Nemesis)
• Inside the story of how H-E-B planned for the pandemic (Texas Monthly)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Who knew grocery shopping could be so stressful (NYT)
• As online orders surge, grocers struggle to deliver (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon workers to strike at New York site on virus concerns (Bloomberg)
• Instacart's gig workers are planning a massive, nationwide strike (Vice)
• BC town vows to look after U.S. neighbours during pandemic (CBC)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Should we still go shopping online (NYT)
• Amazon is struggling to pay workers in quarantine (The Atlantic)
• Britain's lockdown is a bonanza for grocers, unless they flub it (Bloomberg)
• The autopsy of the experience economy (Nemesis)
• Inside the story of how H-E-B planned for the pandemic (Texas Monthly)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How Jose Andres plans to feed the world during the COVID-19 pandemic (Time)
• This would be a really good time for food delivery robots (Slate)
• Amazon's new 'essential items' policy is devastating sellers (Wired)
• Coronavirus upends trucking networks, with heavy one-way flows (WSJ)
• From the archives (2009): Why Maureen Sabia is such a corporate power player (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• By the numbers: COVID-19's devastating impact on the restaurant industry (Eater)
• Defending retail against the Coronavirus (Bain)
• Grocers stopped stockpiling food. Then came the Coronavirus (WSJ)
• Grocery stores are the Coronavirus tipping point (The Atlantic)
• Could synthetic fish be a better catch of the day (BBC)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• A boom time for the bean industry (NYT)
• Gig economy workers are our new first responders (Slate)
• Guns, groceries, and news: What sells during a pandemic - and what doesn't (WSJ)
• When stocking grocery shelves turns dangerous (NYT)
• Novelty mugs are the only mugs I want to drink coffee out of (Bon Appetit)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Amazon is looking to purchase four Fairway stores (Grub Street)
• The face of Houston's diverse dining scene is a white guy from Nebraska (NYT)
• Americans are stocking up on 'comfort booze' (Bloomberg)
• How not to be a jerk when ordering groceries during a pandemic (Vox)
• Re-think your relationship with your vendors (HBR)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• The modern supply chain is snapping (The Atlantic)
• Luxury businesses face their worst year in modern history (Quartz)
• Why Japanese beauty and skincare still reigns supreme (Dazed)
• Coronavirus-era food supply. America has a lot. Moving it is tricky (WSJ)
• Toilet paper makers' message to U.S. consumers: We got this (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Deciem and The Ordinary Company changed skin care forever (Vox)
• Canada's big grocers say there's enough food stock to go around (CBC)
• Grocery delivery strains to meet voracious demand (WSJ)
• Plight of retail workers: "I'm scared to go to work" (NYT)
• From the archives (2013): Walmart customers complain bare shelves are widespread (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• What are the risks of food and grocery deliveries (WSJ)
• Is it ethical to order delivery during a pandemic (Wired)
• Danny Meyer's restaurant group lays off 2,000 employees (NYT)
• Grocery stores designate shopping hour for those most vulnerable to COVID-19 (CBC)
• Completing a transformation in the consumer goods industry (McKinsey)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The dark history of how coffee took over the world (The Atlantic)
• Is artificial intelligence good? Clothing companies say yes (WSJ)
• Buyout firms bid for Walmart's U.K. grocery chain Asda (Bloomberg)
• America's restaurants will need a miracle (The Atlantic)
• Amazon is prioritizing essential products as online orders spike (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The milk situation (NYT)
• Why all the Warby Parker clones are now imploding (Marker)
• Working wonders (MIT Technology Review)
• Impossible Foods raises $500 million in new funding (Reuters)
• Disentangling the effects of hedge fund activism on firm financial and social performance (Strategic Management Journal)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Beans take center stage (The Cut)
• He has 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer and nowhere to sell them (NYT)
• We are all irrational panic shoppers (The New Yorker)
• How you should get food during the pandemic (The Atlantic)
• There is plenty of food in the country (NYT)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How to build retail resilience in a recession (McKinsey)
• Funding the future of retail through cost transformation (Bain)
• Alternative meat industry moves beyond the burger (Ars Technica)
• The man behind the plan to remake FedEx (WSJ)
• From the archives (2012): Carrefour rethinks its 'bigger is better' strategy (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Preparing for loyalty's next frontier: Ecosystems (McKinsey)
• Pepsi agrees to buy Rockstar for $3.85B (WSJ)
• Eating junk food can change the teenage brain (CBC)
• Modell's Sporting Goods files for bankruptcy, closing all stores (Bloomberg)
• Sorry, but working from home is overrated (NYT)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Spicy Pucker is a real flavour, and it's everywhere (WSJ)
• IKEA to sell through third party for first time on Tmall in China (Reuters)
• Rewiring merchandising to make the most of analytics (BCG)
• Solving the CPG analytics and digital scale-up challenge (McKinsey)
• Get ready for the second order effects of the new DNVB economy (Medium)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Amazon launches business selling automated checkout to retailers (Reuters)
• Tesco sells its Asian stores in £8bn deal (BBC)
• How Tupperware lost its grip on America's kitchens (WSJ)
• You can change lives by cooking dinner (Salon)
• How much does it cost to run a restaurant (Eater)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• The dairy farm of your imagination is disappearing (Bloomberg)
• How delivery apps eat up your budget (NYT)
• Why restaurants are closing (The Counter)
• The movie theater isn't taking your Netflix addiction lying down (WSJ)
• DoorDash faces its latest challenge: Wooing Wall Street (NYT)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Planet plastic (Rolling Stone)
• Why is wine still so confusing (Vox)
• The new kale: Cauliflower becomes a bestseller (WSJ)
• Barnes & Noble's new plan is to act like an indie bookseller (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2016): In Canada's grocery wars, Metro has little panache, but aisles of discipline (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Walmart, Verizon in talks to test 5G services in some stores (WSJ)
• Why chefs are terrified of the NYC Health Department (Grub Street)
• Silicon Valley ruined work culture everywhere (Wired)
• Specialty grocers lose their edge (WSJ)
• The Dutch Oven, redesigned for Gen Y (Taste)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• DoorDash files confidentially for an IPO (WSJ)
• Printing's not dead. The $35 billion fight over ink cartridges (Bloomberg)
• Is Houston's Jonny Rhodes the most subversive chef in the country (Texas Monthly)
• Tesco opens cashless store in central London (The Guardian)
• Joe Coulombe, founder or Trader Joe's, dies at 89 (NYT)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How Wish built an empire for shoppers to buy on the cheap (Financial Post)
• How customers and firms can find a barrier-free path (K@W)
• Meet the burger flipping robots that may take over fast food (LA Times)
• My tireless quest for a tubeless wipe (NYT)
• In the world of food delivery apps, this Punjabi family is appealing to a niche market (CBC)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• There's an entire industry dedicated to making foods crispy, and it is wild (Bon Appetit)
• We cannot live by takeaway alone (FT)
• How the 'New Nordic' is reshaping the food world (The Guardian)
• Experiential retail needs to die (Collaborative Fund)
• Plant-milk craze has created an oat bubble that is about to burst (Bloomberg)