Best of Pax Westona: January 2021

• Work of the future (MIT)
• The man who turned credit card points into an empire (NYT)
• Jim Orlando: Canadian tech / venture capital predictions for 2021 (Medium)
• An oral history of Xbox (Bloomberg)
• Inside the booming business of relaxation beverages (The Verge)
• Couche-Tard drops bid to take over Carrefour (CBC)
• Roger Martin: My business is too fast moving for strategy (Medium)
• Couche-Tard executives outline a plan that extends beyond convenience stores (Globe and Mail)
• The resilient vending machine industry (McKinsey)
• The state of the sporting goods industry (McKinsey)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Is your 401(k) colluding to make your cereal more expensive (NPR)
• The truth about Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Skip the Dishes (Maclean's)
• Growing the joint profit pool of retailers and manufacturers in Europe (Bain)
• America abandoned its economic prophet. The rest of the world embraced him (Foreign Policy)
• From the archives (1998): Taken to the cleaners (Slate)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Walmart to ramp up automatic fulfillment in its stores (CNBC)
• Walgreens poaches Starbucks executive Rosalind Brewer for CEO (WSJ)
• Why Target is deepening its partnership with Levi's (Fortune)
• Online shoppers accidentally buy too much (WSJ)
• Metro's CEO on plans to expand e-commerce as pandemic reshapes industry (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The state of the sporting goods industry (McKinsey)
• Beyond Meat's PepsiCo tie-up revives animal spirits (Bloomberg)
• Television makers are pitting rival technologies against each other (The Economist)
• Beauty retailer L'Occitane files for Chapter 11 (Retail Dive)
• Belk files for Chapter 11 bankuptcy, Sycamore Partners to take control (CNBC)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Playing to win and scenario planning (Medium)
• The next chapter in analytics: data storytelling (MIT Sloan)
• Burger King's new logo shows why companies are obsessed with 'flat design' (Marker)
• Fast food chains bite into the fervor for chicken sandwiches (WSJ)
• Uber, after buying Postmates, lays off 180 employees (NYT)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• The resilient vending machine industry (McKinsey)
• Office Depot rebuffs takeover offer from Staples (WSJ)
• Seafood sales skyrocket during pandemic (Bloomberg)
• An online sales boom is killing supermarket profits (The Economist)
• The pandemic has been good to U.S. retail firms. For their workers, less so (The Guardian)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Can the Pizza Pusha survive pot legalization (Grub Street)
• Procter & Gamble gets customers to pay up (WSJ)
• My search for lost time in a slice of Jewish rye (NYT)
• How to take advantage of unprecedented points and miles deals (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (1997): Nation's first supermarket attempts to stay competitive (NYT)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• How nothingness became everything we wanted (NYT)
• Why $15 minimum wage is pretty safe (Noahpinion)
• Costco is testing curbside pickup (Grocery Dive)
• Subway can proceed with $210 million defamation suit against CBC for show on chicken content (CBC)
• Couche-Tard gets a lesson in French politics as it mulls next move in bid for Carrefour (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How Couche-Tard's ambitious plan for Carrefour got cut down (FT)
• Deliveroo funding round values firm at over $7 billion (Bloomberg)
• Pizza Hut hopes drop zones can help bring done delivery to fruition (WSJ)
• Personal shopping goes mainstream, and luxury retailers rejoice (Bloomberg)
• Carrefour is left to fight Aldi and Amazon alone (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: My business is too fast moving for strategy (Medium)
• Couche-Tard executives outline a plan that extends beyond convenience stores (Globe and Mail)
• What's ahead for work (WSJ)
• Dollarama stores fined for inadequate sanitary measures (CBC)
• Ontario to expand big-box retail blitz amid widespread rule violations (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Couche-Tard drops bid to take over Carrefour (CBC)
• Edelman Trust Barometer 2021 (Edelman)
• Marc Lore is leaving Walmart to build "a city of the future" (Vox)
• The honey detectives are closing in on China's shady syrup swindlers (Wired)
• The founders of Harry's got a $1.37 billion offer. But the FTC wasn't sold (Inc)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Inside the booming business of relaxation beverages (The Verge)
• What TV remotes tell us about the power of streaming (Protocol)
• Welcome to the fake office commute (WSJ)
• France objects to Couche-Tard's $20 billion Carrefour bid (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (1986): Safeway buyout: A success story (NYT)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Couche Tard in talks to buy Carrefour for $20 billion (Bloomberg)
• Walmart to expand grocery delivery with smart cooler pilot (Reuters)
• A better way to lead large-scale change (McKinsey)
• Tyson, Pilgrim's agree to settle some price fixing claims (WSJ)
• Ontario vows 'inspection blitz' of crowded big-box stores (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Nine keys to becoming a future-ready company (McKinsey)
• The lies we tell during job interviews (WSJ)
• The pandemic tech boom is shaping our cities (FT)
• Loblaw's points economy for private health data follows Big Tech's playbook (Globe and Mail)
• Staples offers $2.1 billion cash to buy Office Depot parent (Reuters)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• A brief history of nachos (Mental Floss)
• Amazon, Walmart tell consumers to skip returns of unwanted items (WSJ)
• Roger Martin: Is strategy in B2B dramatically different than strategy in B2C (Medium)
• Walmart creates fintech startup, speeding push beyond retail (Bloomberg)
• Business is booming at Amazon Canada, but workers say the pandemic is adding to safety concerns (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Jim Orlando: Canadian tech / venture capital predictions for 2021 (Medium)
• De-risking digital and analytics transformations (McKinsey)
• Amazon shutters Prime Pantry (Bloomberg)
• Domtar exits diaper business after nearly a decade with sale of $920 million (Globe and Mail)
• An oral history of Xbox (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Jim Orlando: Reviewing my 2020 Canadian venture capital predictions (Medium)
• Viennetta, the fanciest desert of the '90s, is making a comeback (Eater)
• The end of the golden age of Silicon Valley cafeterias (Bloomberg)
• Can Nike keep its cool (FT)
• From the archives (2012): Loblaw shedding sales to Walmart (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

The great American salad revolution (WSJ)

Work of the future (MIT)

Why suits are cyclical and business travel is coming back (Medium)

The man who turned credit card points into an empire (NYT)

Voices from the front lines of America's food supply (NYT)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Brookfield to buy back property arm for $5.9 billion amid retail real estate rout (Globe and Mail)
• Consumer brands bet working from home is here to stay (WSJ)
• Being an Amazon seller in 2020: A year in review (Molson Hart)
• The great bucatini shortage (Grub Street)
• Trends that will define 2021 - and beyond (McKinsey)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The trap of presiding over strategy (Medium)
• Debunking the myths of dynamic pricing (BCG)
• How Arc'teryx parkas and Salomon hiking boots became high fashion (WSJ)
• For H&M, the future is both 'circular' and 'digital' (McKinsey)
• Tim Hortons launches new dark roast coffee as part of 'back-to-basics' strategy (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Instacart looked like a savior. Now stores aren't so sure (WSJ)
• Life without Amazon (NYT)
• Washington's secret to the perfect Zoom bookshelf. Buy it wholesale (Politico)
• Is Substack the media future we want (The New Yorker)
• Yum Brands CEO orders fast-food growth to go (WSJ)