Best of Pax Westona: August 2020

• The collectors who spend thousands on rare Hot Wheels (The Hustle)
• Once the innovators, department stores fight to stay alive (WSJ)
• What always changes (Collaborative Fund)
• How the global crisis has changed Canadian's spending habits (Globe and Mail)
• The jollof wars (Eater)
• The scramble to pluck 24 billion cherries in eight weeks (NYT)
• Avoiding the pitfalls of our same/different impulse (Medium)
• Equality in the U.S. starts with better jobs (HBR)
• Bias busters: lifting your head from the sand (McKinsey)
• Behold, workleisure (NYT)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Despite a pandemic, mega-mall developers bet on the American Dream (Globe and Mail)
• Reinventing retail with people analytics (McKinsey)
• Is this the end for America's mom-and-pop stores (FT)
• Target is having a pretty good pandemic (New York Magazine)
• Pair of entrepreneurs aim to refashion zombie retailers into online powerhouses (WSJ)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Walmart is teaming up with Microsoft on Tik Tok bid (CNBC)
• The imperatives for automation success (McKinsey)
• Walmart and other grocers engage in a costly big squeeze (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon opens its first Amazon Fresh physical grocery store, in LA (Tech Crunch)
• From the archives (2015): The Greek-Canadian origins of the Hawaiian pizza (Gasto Obscura)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Tech talk with Loblaw Digital's Herman Paek (Canadian Grocer)
• Walmart's supermarket rivals are eating into its grocery share (Bloomberg)
• Unlocking the online retail opportunity with European farmers (McKinsey)
• Coronavirus is causing a can shortage (WSJ)
• How the U.K. restarted its restaurant industry: Paying half its bill (NYT)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Big-box stores, worried about Amazon, were ready for the Coronavirus (WSJ)
• Big grocers face more potential trouble as Dominion workers in Newfoundland strike (Financial Post)
• Provision says revenue has skyrocketed as food producers sign up for its new COVID-19 tracking software (Globe and Mail)
• Retail landlords offer pandemic clauses in new leases (WSJ)
• Where the produce includes pepperoni: The pizza farm (NYT)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Why beauty brands are struggling (BoF)
• Dominion workers strike after tentative deal rejected (CBC)
• How hedge funds profited from the fall of malls (NYT)
• Staycation summer brings boom to some retailers (Globe and Mail)
• Why are there still not enough paper towels (WSJ)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Behold, workleisure (NYT)
• The case for Walmart (Fast Company)
  
• M&S puts all its eggs in Ocado basket (FT)
• The future of Trader Joe's looks bumpy (Bloomberg)
• Fashions dirty secret: How sexual assault took hold in jeans factories (The Guardian)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Bias busters: lifting your head from the sand (McKinsey)
• Marks & Spencer to cut 7,000 jobs over the next three months (BBC)
• For Black jam makers, the power is preserving (NYT)
• Albertans are shopping more than they were before the pandemic (CBC)
• From the archives (2014); Heineken's Charlene de Carvalho: A self-made heiress (Fortune)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• It's no accident that Target is a Covid winner (Bloomberg)
• Canada's inflation rate cools to 0.1% annual pace in July (CBC)
• Pandemic fuels home category sales (Retail Dive)
• Virus alters where people open their wallets (NYT)
• Why the end of CERB could could hit consumer spending - and complicate the recovery (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Equality in the U.S. starts with better jobs (HBR)
• Customer loyalty: The new generation (McKinsey)
• The next challenge for plant-based meat: Winning the price war against animal meat (Vox)
• Home Depot braced for COVID pain - then America remodeled (WSJ)
• Selfridges launches first in-house rental collection (Harper's Bazaar)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Avoiding the pitfalls of our same/different impulse (Medium)
• Meet the next-normal consumer (McKinsey)
• Retailers design the in-store experience for reusable packaging (WSJ)
• The future of food media is in your inbox (Taste)
• Tesco to take on Amazon with free home delivery for premium cardholders (The Guardian)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Canada's Competition Bureau investigates Amazon.ca (CBC)
• The scramble to pluck 24 billion cherries in eight weeks (NYT)
• Impossible Foods raises $200 million in fresh funding (Reuters)
• Waitrose and M&S fight for Ocado customers (The Guardian)
• Zillow 2020 urban-suburban housing market report (Zillow)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Grocery workers say morale has hit bottom (Washington Post)
• Shoppers Drug Mart to test three medical clinics this year (Globe and Mail)
• The jollof wars (Eater)
• Expiring vs permanent skills (Collaborative Fund)
• From the archives (2011): Zellers era drawing to a close (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Why are some groceries still so hard to find during Covid (WSJ)
• Amazon is so much bricks and mortar (NYT)
• Why every brand needs to behave like a health and wellness brand (Fast Company)
• Will innovation finally add up for consumer goods companies (McKinsey)
• The new Aeroplan loyalty program has been revealed, and it's a complete overhaul (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Brooks Brothers poised to be acquired by Authentic Brands - Simon Venture (WSJ)
• Kroger to build web marketplace to compete with Walmart, Costco (Bloomberg)
• What consumer-goods sales leaders must do to emerge stronger from the pandemic (McKinsey)
• The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker (Atlas Obscura)
• Retail chains abandon Manhattan: "It's unsustainable" (NYT)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How the global crisis has changed Canadian's spending habits (Globe and Mail)
• The role of spend analytics in the next normal (McKinsey)
• Keurig Dr Pepper's data tracking helps in making financial forecasts (WSJ)
• Ferrero scion builds $3 billion side bet to Nutella fortune (Bloomberg)
• Amazon and mall operator look at turning Sears, J.C. Penney stores into fulfillment centres (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Sweatpants forever (NYT)
• The joy of sourcing (Grub Street)
• What always changes (Collaborative Fund)
• UPS plans hefty holiday fees amid shipment surge (WSJ)
• Gig workers for Target's delivery service say tipping glitches are cutting into pay (Washington Post)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Meet Gen Z: Shaping the future of shopping (McKinsey)
• How the coronavirus altered DTC's relationship with bricks & mortar (Retail Dive)
• The 2% solution: Inside billionaire Robert Smith's bold plan to funnel billions to Black-owned businesses (Forbes)
• Farmers and food groups call on government to regulate grocer fees (Globe and Mail)
• From the archives (2018): How pink salt took over millennial kitchens (The Atlantic)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Once the innovators, department stores fight to stay alive (WSJ)
• Walmart has again delayed the launch of its Amazon Prime competitor Walmart+ (Vox)
• A record number of companies have filed for creditor protection (CBC)
• The bizarre fall of the CEO of Coach and Kate Spade's parent company (Propublica)
• Padma Lakshmi wants us to eat more adventurously (NYT)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Instacart besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders (Bloomberg)
• The collectors who spend thousands on rare Hot Wheels (The Hustle)
• Nordstrom uses influencers to promote safety and draw anxious shoppers (NYT)
• How a cheese goes extinct (The New Yorker)
• Canadian farmers plant far more durum as COVID-19 pushes global demand (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• George Weston pursues ailing Swiss baking firm Aryzta (Bloomberg)
• Trader Joe's refutes claims of product name changes (Trader Joe's)
• DavidsTea to close 82 retail locations in Canada amid COVID-19 (Globe and Mail)
• Walmart is eliminating hundreds of corporate jobs (Bloomberg)
• Lord & Taylor files for bankruptcy as retail collapses pile up (NYT)

Best of Pax Westona: July 2020

• With department stores disappearing, malls could be next (NYT)
• The lives upended over a $20 cheeseburger (Washington Post)
• Can salad bars be saved (Bloomberg)
• Inside Uber's billion-dollar bet on Postmates (Fast Company)
• The All-American battle for your delivery dollars (WSJ)
• The promise and peril of virtual health care (The New Yorker)
• A framework for retail success in the next normal (McKinsey)
• Habits, COVID, and Strategy (Medium)
• Ben & Jerry's radical ice cream dreams (NYT)
• Rite Aid deployed facial recognition in hundreds of its stores (Reuters)