Best of Pax Westona: February 2021

• Amazon can make just about everything - except a good video game (Bloomberg)
• Jeff Bezos to step down as Amazon CEO, to be replaced by AWS chief Andy Jassy (NYT)
• The takeout king (Toronto Life)
• The shocking meltdown of Brooklyn's hottest ice cream shop (Marker)
• An ode to bubble tea (The New Yorker)
• Strategy vs planning: Complements, not substitutes (Medium)
• How Shopify is bracing for a looming battle with Amazon (Globe and Mail)
• The best story wins (Collaborative Fund)
• Amazon's great labour awakening (NYT Magazine)
• How H-E-B helped Texans after the winter storm (NYT)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Cheese actually isn't bad for you (Wired)
• Where are the directors in a world in crisis (Globe and Mail)
• The + that's taking over streaming platforms (NYT)
• Supermarkets are pressured to raise hazard pay (WSJ)
• From the archives (2008): Ontario's store wars march westwards (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Vertical farms nailed tiny salads. Now they have to feed the world (Wired)
• An Amazon warehouses high-stakes union drive (The Guardian)
• A new class of 'performance beers' is taking a page from Gatorade (Bloomberg)
• The origins of buttergate (Globe and Mail)
• The (surprising) rise of the sheet pan (NYT)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Estee Lauder to buy Deciem in a deal valuing the company at $2.2 billion (CBC)
• Conagra's post-Covid strategy (WSJ)
• McDonald's joins the fierce fight for chicken sandwich supremacy (NYT)
• Dollar General takes steps to find potential CEO successor (Reuters)
• Ontario startup bets insect powder will make our food system more sustainable (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The motivation for strategy (Medium)
• Restaurants and startups try to outrun Uber Eats and DoorDash (WSJ)
• Amazon's former delivery guru wants to solve the 'middle mile' (Bloomberg)
• How H-E-B helped Texans after the winter storm (NYT)
• The Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's 'conscious capitalism' (The New Yorker)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Amazon's great labour awakening (NYT Magazine)
• Fast food fans demand return of old favourites (WSJ)
• Walmart Canada defends controversial supplier fee as sales soar (Financial Post)
• Annie's pledges to purge a class of chemicals from its Mac and Cheese (NYT)
• If nobody loves grape nuts, why are they sold out everywhere (Marker)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Can Danone pull a Nestle? Activists are betting on it (Bloomberg)
• Sending flowers during COVID, for many reasons (NYT)
• After blistering 2020, Shopify warns of softer year ahead (Globe and Mail)
• How a health food store became L.A.'s hottest hangout (NYT) 
• From the archives (1993): 50 reasons why we cannot change (Fast Company)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Bill Gates: Rich nations should switch entirely to synthetic beef (MIT Technology Review)
• Nestle to sell water brands for $4.5 billion (WSJ)
• Roll up the Rim goes digital as Tim Hortons modernizes its popular program (Globe and Mail)
• M&A Report 2021 (Bain)
• Why a proposed deal between two American publishing giants matters to the Canadian book industry (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Cineplex CEO confident moviegoers will return (Globe and Mail)
• The best story wins (Collaborative Fund)
• Adopting agile processes in consumer companies (McKinsey)
• Vegan chocolate race heats up as Nestle plans rice-based KitKat (Bloomberg)
• A big test of reusable packaging for groceries comes to Canada (CBC)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Strategy vs planning: Complements, not substitutes (Medium)
• How Shopify is bracing for a looming battle with Amazon (Globe and Mail)
• The revolution will not be tenderized (NEOLIFE)
• Uber's CEO sees ride-hailing rebound faster than other transit (Bloomberg)
• Immigration to Canada drops to lowest levels since 1998 (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• The world's first 3D printed ribeye is unveiled (Washington Post)
• IKEA branches out into consumer banking with Ikano bank deal (Globe and Mail)
• TikTok sale to Oracle, Walmart gets shelved (WSJ)
• Sainsbury's takes on Aldi in price war (BBC)
• From the archives (1999): RJR Nabisco, an epilogue (NYT)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• An ode to bubble tea (The New Yorker)
• Malls spent billions on theme parks to woo shoppers. It made matters worse (WSJ)
• Aunt Jemina has a new name: The Pearl Milling Company (NYT)
• Online liquor sales are booming amid pandemic (Bloomberg)
• Best Buy is cutting some store workers' jobs, reducing hours (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The birria boom is complicated, but simply delicious (NYT)
• Second Cup sold by Aegis Brands to Quebec company Foodtastic (Globe and Mail)
• Hygiene theatre is still a huge waste of time (The Atlantic)
• DoorDash adds startup Chowbotics for meal preparation (WSJ)
• All in Motion becomes Target's latest billion-dollar brand (Target)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The two rules that monopolists ignore at their own peril (Medium)
• Everyone wants sushi to go, and it's saving some restaurants (WSJ)
• Jassy's 'chop' meetings at Amazon makes sense (Bloomberg)
• Walmart announces new vision for its media business (Walmart)
• Walmart buys ad-tech to chase small business advertisers (WSJ)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Uber Eats couriers say new pay system dropped wages (Globe and Mail)
• How the Kohl's CEO is navigating the Covid-19 pandemic (WSJ)
• The ugly secrets behind the Costco chicken (NYT)
• The absurd logic of internet recipe hacks (The Atlantic)
• Oatly weighing $10 billion value in U.S. IPO (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• The takeout king (Toronto Life)
• The shocking meltdown of Brooklyn's hottest ice cream shop (Marker)
• Unified Unilever looks to make larger deals in break with past (Bloomberg)
• Shiseido to sell personal care business to CVC in $1.5 billion deal (CNBC)
• From the archives (2019): Jeff Bezos' master plan (The Atlantic)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The joy of watching other people clean (NYT)
• Nestle close to deal to sell Poland Springs to buyout firm One Rock (Reuters)
• Amazon unveils its outdoorsy new HQ2, renewing its commitment to offices (WSJ)
• Uber buys Drizly, an alcohol delivery service, for $1.1 billion (NYT)
• Kraft Heinz nears deal to sell Planters brand to Hormel (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Jeff Bezos to step down as Amazon CEO, to be replaced by AWS chief Andy Jassy (NYT)
• Pets may soon be fed laboratory-grown meat (The Economist)
• Superstar cities are in trouble (The Atlantic)
• Chipotle drive-throughs open a window of opportunity (Bloomberg)
• Canada's Flexiti, a buy-now-pay-later lender, sold to US firm for $155 million (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Distinguishing how-to-win from capabilities in your strategy choice (Medium)
• Did everyone buy a guitar during the pandemic (Rolling Stone)
• Working from home means more than just no commute (Bloomberg)
• Loblaw partners on test of resuable packaging in Ontario (Globe and Mail)
• Topshop buyout by Asos will change more than the way we shop (The Guardian)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Cooks turned Instagram into the world's greatest takeout menu (NYT)
• The restaurant before and after Covid (n+1)
• Pizza Hut launches 'Detroit-style' pizza. America says 'huh?' (WSJ)
• Why reducing your offerings pays off (HBR)
• Amazon can make just about everything - except a good video game (Bloomberg)