Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Our ghost-kitchen future (The New Yorker)
• Why the American consumer has future options - maybe for good (WSJ)
• Vegan Mexican food is taking Southern California by storm (LA Times)
• Amazon private labels and antitrust (Margins)
• Lululemon to buy Mirror, a fitness startup, for $500 million (NYT)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Why grocery items are still out of stock (Bloomberg)
• UK retailers remain gloomy about quick post-lockdown bounce (The Guardian)
• Albertsons prices IPO below expectations in downsized deal (WSJ)
• Facebook tightens controls on speech as ad boycott grows (WSJ)
• Gap's shares jumped 42% after it signed a deal with Kanye West to sell a Yeezy clothing line (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The future of customer experience: White glove service for all (McKinsey)
• Building resilient supply chains won't be easy (HBR)
• Meat producers turn to old dairy cows for better beef flavor (Bloomberg)
• With baseball up in the air, what about the ballpark peanuts (NYT)
• From the archives (2013): Paul Sobey's patient and painstaking approach to building an empire (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• An early view of post-COVID discretionary spending in Asia (McKinsey)
• The future of commerce belongs to the frictionless (Wired)
• Property owner Simon sees buying tenants as a way to boost malls (WSJ)
• Aurora Cannabis to close facilities, lay off 700 workers in restructuring (Globe and Mail)
• Plexiglass supplies run short as COVID barriers go up (WSJ)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Retailers face a data deficit in the wake of the pandemic (HBR)
• You don't know your customer anymore (Fast Company)
• Americans are actually drinking less during the pandemic (Bloomberg)
• What's got into the price of cheese (NYT)
• Couch dining to withstand restaurant re-openings (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Sobeys launches e-commerce amid surge in demand due to COVID-19 (Globe and Mail)
• How to win with digital marketplaces (McKinsey)
• The Bangladesh garment industry on the brink (The Guardian)
• From Spam to corned beef, sales of canned meat are booming (Bloomberg)
• Coronavirus changed everything. Except T.J. Maxx (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• When bakers demanded more flour, King Arthur went to the mills (Bloomberg)
• Product simplicity for CPG companies (McKinsey)
• This is not the end of cities (Bloomberg)
• The credit card fees merchants hate, banks love, and consumers pay (WSJ)
• How White Lily flour began appearing across the United States (Eater)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• The genius of supermarkets (The Atlantic)
• Albertsons looks to price IPO between $18 and $20 a share (WSJ)
• The coming COVID baby bust (Brookings)
• U.S. meat plants are deadly as ever, with no incentive to change (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2013): Empire to focus on Sobeys, sells theatres to Cineplex, Landmark (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Inside the push to create a Canadian version of Popeyes vaunted chicken sandwich (Financial Post)
• Is there a line at Trader Joe's? Social-media spies are keeping track (WSJ)
• What will the retail experience of the future look like (HBR)
• The ice cream industry is having a meltdown (Slate)
• Walmart partners with Shopify to expand web marketplace business (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How Canada failed migrant farm workers (Globe and Mail)
• Restaurants trying to re-open face cash crunch (WSJ)
• Mall operator Simon Property abandons $3.6 billion acquisition of Taubman (Reuters) 
• Why milk's best sales in a decade won't save struggling dairy farmers (WSJ)
• CERB payments to be extended two more months (CBC)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How Tim Hortons knows where you live, work, and vacation (Financial Post)
• Amazon said to be under scrutiny in two states for abuse of power (NYT)
• Redefining value and affordability in retail's next normal (McKinsey)
• U.S. meat giants face biggest attack in century from probe (Bloomberg)
• India's comfort food tells the story of its pandemic (The Atlantic)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Amazon's new competitive advantage: Putting its own products first (Propublica)
• Can rivals take advantage of Amazon pandemic woes. It isn't easy (WSJ)
• Tofu goes mainstream in U.S. thanks to Big Meat's COVID crisis (Bloomberg)
• Nestle weighs sale of water unit in push towards sustainability (NYT)
• DoorDash nears deal to secure funding at $15B valuation (WSJ)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.8 billion (NYT)
• Will the pandemic see Telus Health find its footing (Globe and Mail)
• A perfect storm for fashion marketplaces (McKinsey)
• The Sikhs know how to feed crowds in a pandemic (NYT)
• From the archives (2005): The tastemaker (LA Weekly)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• How technology is disrupting UK retail (McKinsey)
• Shoppers surprise retailers by returning to stores (WSJ)
• As diners flock to delivery apps, restaurants fear for their future (NYT)
• Plastic is the hero of the coronavirus, according to the plastics industry (Bloomberg)
• Dollarama sales top retailer's forecasts as consumers stocked up on supplies (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Fastest-rising food prices in decades drive consumers to hunt for value (WSJ)
• What it looks like inside an Amazon warehouse now (NYT)
• Chanel, Revlon, L'Oreal pivoting away from talc in some products (Reuters)
• The future of experimental retail in the era of Coronavirus (Retail Dive)
• How a family bakery used technology to expand and bring in some big brands (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The economy is experiencing an epic collapse in demand (NYT)
• Ikea can't open stores fast enough after flubbing online (WSJ)
• The end of minimalism (The Atlantic)
• AstraZeneca eyes Gilead in Big Pharma's move beyond Covid (Bloomberg)
• Artizia weathers the COVID-19 storm with increase in e-commerce orders (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Brooks Bros., 'Made in America' since 1818, may soon need a new calling card (NYT)
• What Ben & Jerry's is doing for social justice (Bloomberg)
• Justice department issues subpoenas to beef-processing giants (WSJ)
• Buyout firm Sycamore Partners in talks to buy J.C. Penney (Reuters)
• The Americans who took risks trucking produce to Canada (CBC)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Finding euphoria in Bangkok's food scene (NYT)
• The sickness in our food supply (New York Review of Books)
• Coffee empire JAB eyes Compassion First pet hospitals (Bloomberg)
• Restauranteur Grant van Gameren on the future of Toronto's food scene (Toronto Life)
• From the archives (2004): Lidl halts plan for Canadian grocery chain (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Driverless tractors are getting read for harvest season (Bloomberg)
• How to re-engineer your business for safety (HBR)
• Walmart pushes forward with new HQ plans (Fortune)
• Pilgrim's Pride chief executive accused of price fixing (NYT)
• Brands have nothing real to say about racism (The Atlantic)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Will food companies newfound fortune last (WSJ)
• It's not just flour flying off the shelves. Popcorn seed orders are exploding (CBC)
• Retailers wrestle with mountains of unsold stock (Reuters)
• Nestle loses fight with Impossible Foods over meatless burger branding (WSJ)
• Welcome to the United States of Amazon (Tortoise)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• A hidden origin story of the CBD craze (NYT)
• Dining in the post-virus era (Bloomberg)
• Behind the fall of China's Luckin' Coffee (WSJ)
• Amazon profits from the price gouging it says it is trying to stamp out (Quartz)
• As pandemic hobbles retailers, HBC fights department store headwinds (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Amazon's big breakdown (NYT)
• Wegmans pampered its shoppers. Now it has to protect them (WSJ)
• Uber-Grubhub deal hinges on breakup fee (Bloomberg)
• Dollar chains expect robust demand as shoppers brace for recession (Reuters)
• Restaurants are barely surviving. Delivery apps will kill them (Washington Post)