Best of Pax Westona: December 2020

• The death of the department store and the American middle class (Vox)
• DoorDash: The value of speed (The Generalist)
• Inside the (surprisingly) big business of packaged ice (The Guardian)
• Roger Martin: Strategy and design thinking (Medium)
• The rise of Japan's loyalty point influencers (Rest of World)
• It's time to replace the public corporation (HBR)
• An oral history of the world's biggest coupon (NYT)
• Roger Martin: Strategy and integrative thinking (Medium)
• Tire Change: How Canadian Tire's new CEO has managed a baptism by virus (Globe and Mail)
• Jenna Lyons' J. Crew afterlife (The New Yorker)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Surprise ending for publishers: In 2020, business was good (NYT)
• Jenna Lyons' J. Crew afterlife (The New Yorker)
• Brazil is famous for its meat. But vegetarianism is soaring (NYT)
• What is 'lab-grown' or 'cell-based' meat (Globe and Mail)
• From the archives (2020): The Canadians in a billion-dollar race to cure coughing (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The items that defined 2020 (Vox)
• Chobani's anti-CEO is a pro-employee billionaire in expansion mode (Bloomberg)
• The future of home decor is green (Globe and Mail)
• Is dairy farming cruel to cows (NYT)
• What did 2020 do to retail (HBR)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• On the inseparability of where-to-play and how-to-win (Medium)
• Why Google's recipe results are meaningless (Slate)
• How SoulCycle lost its soul (Vox)
• With Alibaba investigation, China gets tougher on tech (NYT)
• Galen Weston becomes controlling shareholder of grocery empire (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Coronavirus pandemic crushes supply chain, workers on both ends (Globe and Mail)
• Last minute shoppers avoid stores, hit websites - and orders are piling up (Bloomberg)
• U.S Justice Dept. accuses Walmart of fueling opioid crisis (NYT)
• Gift cards are the go-to holiday gifts of 2020 (WSJ)
• From the archives (2014): The Steve Jobs of beer (The Atlantic)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Michael Medline has returned Sobeys back to health; now he looks to the horizon (Financial Post)
• How Amazon wins: By steamrolling rivals and partners (WSJ)
• How restaurants retooled for takeout - and survived (Wired)
• Walmart to pilot test livestreamed video shopping on TikTok (Tech Crunch)
• Amazon and Walmart have raked in billions during the pandemic - and shared almost none of it with their workers (Brookings)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Strategy and integrative thinking (Medium)
• Tire Change: How Canadian Tire's new CEO has managed a baptism by virus (Globe and Mail)
• Food delivery fees: How to avoid the $18 burger (WSJ)
• Auctioning off a dead mall (NYT)
• Metro pays out near-maximum bonuses to executives after topping profit targets (Globe and Mail) 

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• An oral history of the world's biggest coupon (NYT)
• How a real-life monopoly made Monopoly the world's biggest board game (The Hustle)
• How Pez evolved from an anti-smoking to a beloved collector's item (Smithsonian Mag)
• Demystifying consumer choice (BCG)
• The year of the dog: In 2020 furry friends were just what we needed to make it through the pandemic (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Christmas trees are the hot new pandemic item (The Atlantic)
• Coke's elusive goal: Boosting its Black employees (WSJ)
• Retailer Wish drops in trading debut after IPO spree (Bloomberg)
• For farmers and consumers, a crazy year in food (WSJ)
• From the archives (1992): Wicked problems in design thinking (MIT Press)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• It's time to replace the public corporation (HBR)
• Why is there financing for everything now (The Atlantic)
• High-end city dining turns to suburban delivery during the pandemic (WSJ)
• Aphria, Tilray combine to form the biggest cannabis company (Bloomberg)
• Former Away employees describe toxic work environment at the luggage startup (The Verge)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The rise of Japan's loyalty point influencers (Rest of World)
• Chewy to expand pet products, explores monetizing telehealth services (WSJ)
• Uber and DoorDash to add surcharges to cover worker benefits (FT)
• Here's why it might be too late to order your holiday gifts online (CNBC)
• On the glory days of the great American trade paperback (Literary Hub)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Strategy and design thinking (Medium)
• Asda paid parent Walmart $1.52 billion dividend (Reuters)
• Affirm: The morality of money (The Generalist)
• GameStop employees surprised by new shipment of Xbox, PS5 (Bloomberg)
• Not Amazon: Online initiatives encourage shoppers to think (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Is American dietetics a white bread world (NYT)
• The walk-in kitchen pantry is the new designer shoe closet (WSJ)
• How 2020 turned the store inside out (Bloomberg)
• How tight is the Christmas tree supply? An 8-footer can fetch $2,000 (WSJ)
• Vending machine pizza and robotic coffee in vogue as pandemic accelerates restaurant automation (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Inside the (surprisingly) big business of packaged ice (The Guardian)
• America's most hated garment (The Atlantic)
• Stealing to survive: More Americans are shoplifting food as aid runs out during the pandemic (Washington Post)
• Canadian firms sign global pledge to make plastic packaging more recyclable (Globe and Mail)
• From the archives (2017): Why Australian supermarkets continue to look to the UK for leadership (The Conversation)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Etsy was a twee culture punchline. Now it's a Wall Street darling (NYT)
• The role of food in video games (The Guardian)
• It's time to build a resilience into retail and consumer goods supply chains (Bain)
• How European shoppers will buy groceries in the next normal (McKinsey)
• "You're competing with the world": Small retailers starting from scratch in e-commerce during the pandemic (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Canada's Food Price Report 2021 (Dalhouse University)
• DoorDash: The value of speed (The Generalist)
• Barnes and Noble's new boss tries to save the chain - and traditional bookselling (WSJ)
• The artisanal Crocs have landed (The Verge)
• I've spent my life building restaurants. Covid-19 has killed their magic - and threatened their future (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The $2 billion mall rats (Esquire)
• These gas station entrepreneurs favored food over fuel and got rich (WSJ)
• Avocados are the 'pandemic-proof' crop in lockdown health craze (Bloomberg)
• How retailers track your every move in exchange for coupons and convenience (Vox)
• How the biggest retail companies are companies essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic (Brookings)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Why Sobeys is saying 'yes' to hero pay and 'no' to gouging suppliers (Toronto Star)
• With 3 billion packages to go, online shopping faces tough holiday test (NYT)
• Nestle redoubles efforts to combat climate change (Nestle)
• Investors seek growth now in paying later (WSJ)
• U.S. retail instalment plan financier Affirm buys Canada's PayBright for $340 million (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• The state of fashion 2021 (BoF)
• Goodbye blazers, hello 'coatigans': Women adjust attire to work at home (NYT)
• Google, Facebook, and Amazon gain as Coronavirus reshapes ad spending (WSJ)
• Cultured meat has been approved for consumers for first time (MIT Technology Review)
• From the archives (2018): The great retail bifurcation (Deloitte)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Pharmacies add freezers, train staff to handle Covid-19 vaccination drive (WSJ)
• Coalition of retailers is calling on Ontario government to lift Covid restrictions (Globe and Mail)
• How consumer brands can get e-commerce right (McKinsey)
• Amazon shopping needs a Prime army (NYT)
• Amazon works to avoid Google's fate with EU regulators (NYT)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The death of the department store and the American middle class (Vox)
• 'Bleak Friday' for stores as pandemic pushes holiday shopping online (NYT)
• Philip Green loses battle to retail of 21st century (Bloomberg)
• Kohl's to open 850 Sephora beauty shops in its stores by 2023 (CNBC)
• Debenhams collapse deals another blow to struggling UK retail sector (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Strategy & Time (Medium)
• The 'great man' theory of American food (The Atlantic)
• Why proper sleep hygiene is so important (Globe and Mail)
• As winter arrives, heaters become a survival tool for businesses (NYT)
• Predicting consumer demand in an unpredictable world (HBR)