Best of Pax Westona: March 2021

• Stores still matter when it comes to online groceries (FT)
• Amazon quietly began building a grocery chain during the pandemic (Bloomberg)
• With Shopify, small businesses strikes back at Amazon (WSJ)
• Empire buys controlling stake in Longo's, Grocery Gateway (Globe and Mail)
• Why we shouldn't assume Amazon has it all figured out (NYT)
• The engineers building ridiculous dart blasters that Nerf won't touch (The Verge)
• Greg Hicks on the role of stores and e-commerce during the pandemic (Toronto Star)
• George Weston to sell bakery business, Loblaw makes management shifts (Globe and Mail)
• The next great disruption is hybrid work - are we ready (Microsoft)
• The beauty of 78.5 million followers (NYT Magazine)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• How big is Amazon really (NYT)
• Data-driven marketing in the next normal (McKinsey)
• Companies ask their customers to help them cut emissions (WSJ)
• Amazon loses effort to install camera to watch union vote ballot counting (CNBC)
• Why the Amazon unionization vote could take a week - or longer - to be resolved (Washington Post)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The shift from pre-competitive to competitive (Medium)
• T-shirts are the souvenirs from the year we went nowhere (The Atlantic)
• The wannabe food influencer who's wanted by the FBI (The Guardian)
• Eight charts that explain Canada's tough task of recovering jobs (Globe and Mail)
• If Weston sells its bakery business, the 'rationale' for holding company comes into question (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• The beauty of 78.5 million followers (NYT Magazine)
• Frozen pizza sales are red hot and expected to outlast the pandemic (CBC)
• What brands can learn from Australia about the post-Covid consumer (Bain)
• Google aims to be the anti-Amazon in e-commerce. It has a long way to go (NYT)
• Michael Medline: There is room for principle-based dealings in Canadian grocery retail (Financial Post)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• How crying on TikTok sells books (NYT)
• How a Russian retailer is building a next-generation grocery retailer (McKinsey)
• What Walmart can learn from Tesco's failed banking experiment (Bloomberg)
• Pasta has a new shape (NPR)
• From the archives (2013): At Rona, a hands-on CEO grapples with a turnaround (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Cold storage for food is a hot real estate play (Bloomberg)
• What data can't do (The New Yorker)
• The curious case of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch box (NYT)
• For all the hype, robots are limited in what they can do in their home (Washington Post)
• Torys LLP partner to become President of Wittington (Toronto Star)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• George Weston to sell bakery business, Loblaw makes management shifts (Globe and Mail)
• Ocado sues rival AutoStore in Germany as patent fight deepens (Bloomberg)
• The next great disruption is hybrid work - are we ready (Microsoft)
• How CEO Chris Kempczinski keeps McDonald's relevant (McKinsey)
• Popeyes plots to become global power (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Where's the business model in playing to win (Medium)
• Revealed: Seafood fraud happening on a vast global scale (The Guardian)
• Subscriptions are getting out of hand. Here's how to manage them (WSJ)
• Low tips, long waits: DoorDash takes on drivers' Walmart gripes (Reuters)
• Greg Hicks on the role of stores and e-commerce during the pandemic (Toronto Star)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Canada's population grows at lowest rate since 1916 (Statcan)
• The engineers building ridiculous dart blasters that Nerf won't touch (The Verge)
• The great Amazon flip-a-thon (NYT)
• Dollar General bets that bigger is better while rivals pare down (Bloomberg)
• Sam's Club CEO on the company's high sales and low wages (NYT)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Specialty grocer Weee valued at $2.8 billion in latest round (Bloomberg)
• Squishmallows are taking over (NYT)
• Amazon to offer telehealth services to other U.S. firms this summer (WSJ)
• DoorDash: Delivering more than just food (RBC)
• From the archives (2006): Solving the mystery of the 'short cappuccino' (Slate)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• How COVID-19 forever changed big box shopping (Bloomberg)
• Nordstrom debuts platform for shoppable shows (CNBC)
• Why is it so hard to speak up at work (NYT)
• Do Amazon ads bring in more cash than AWS? (Benedict Evans)
• Nine ways COVID-19 has changed consumers, and business for the decade ahead (RBC)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Empire buys controlling stake in Longo's, Grocery Gateway (Globe and Mail)
• Which industry excels at innovation? You'd be surprised (WSJ)
• How Amazon crushes unions (NYT)
• Why we shouldn't assume Amazon has it all figured out (NYT)
• Seven imperatives for the retail industry (McKinsey)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Reliability vs validity in strategy (Medium)
• COVID-19's impact on demand and costs in the CPG industry (McKinsey)
• Danone board ousts Emmanuel Faber as chief and CEO (FT)
• With Shopify, small businesses strikes back at Amazon (WSJ)
• Walmart Canada closing 6 stores, investing $500 million to upgrade others (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Coupang, South Korea's answer to Amazon, debuts in IPO (NYT)
• Amazon quietly began building a grocery chain during the pandemic (Bloomberg)
• Ulta Beauty's CEO will step down (Ulta)
• Amazon site in Brampton ordered closed due to outbreak (CBC)
• Competition Bureau backs review of antitrust laws amid scrutiny of grocers (Financial Post)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Paper Source's bankruptcy leaves female cardmakers feeling burned (NYT)
• Canada's competition laws come under scrutiny after grocery business controversies (Financial Post)
• Stores still matter when it comes to online groceries (FT)
• Amazon-backed Deliveroo plans IPO, testing London's appetite for Big Tech (WSJ)
• From the archives (2003): A specialty food store with a Discount attitude (NYT)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Unilever will drop the word 'normal' from beauty products (NYT)
• North America's biggest bet on downtowns shift to the suburbs (Bloomberg)
• Amazon fights aggressively to fight union drive in Alabama (Washington Post)
• Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free (BBC)
• Amazon's monopoly is squeezing your public library, too (Washington Post)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Walmart Canada explores ghost kitchens (Retail Dive)
• Ahold CFO aims to make online sales a larger share of revenue (WSJ)
• The convenience retail industry is at a crossroads (Fire Ant)
• Where are all the female analysts on Bay Street (Globe and Mail)
• Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop is going in on ghost kitchens (Eater)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The role of strategy in achieving managerial effectiveness (Medium)
• Toronto has had some of the longest business closures in North America (Globe and Mail)
• The best bagels are in California (NYT)
• Debranding is the new branding (Bloomberg)
• Inside the pandemic wealth boom - and why it's not spread evenly (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• How remote work is reshaping America's geography (WSJ)
• Can the death of skinny jeans save retail (Bloomberg)
• Real meat that vegetarians can eat (WSJ)
• Your weird pandemic meals are probably fine (The Atlantic)
• Avoiding the tyranny of choice (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• India's Flipkart said to mull U.S. listing with a SPAC as an option (Bloomberg)
• Michael's will be acquired by a private equity firm in a $5 billion deal (NYT)
• Wittington-backed Foxtrot opens its first physical store in Washington D.C. (Retail Dive)
• As online shopping surged, Amazon planned its New York takeover (NYT)
• From the archives (1998): Surf's up! (Forbes)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Instacart raises $265 million, more than doubling its valuation to $39 billion (NYT)
• Older shoppers are the hot new thing for consumer brands (WSJ)
• Baby boomers are dominating online shopping (Washington Post)
• The grocery store of the mind (NYT)
• Sobeys teams up with Oliver & Bonacini to add high-end frozen dishes via Voila delivery service (The Star)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Unhealthy foods aren't just bad for you, they may be addictive (NYT)
• Is radical transparency the future of the fashion industry (WSJ)
• 2020 was the worst year on record for Canada's economy, shrinking 5.4% (CBC)
• Michael's is attracting buyout interest from private equity (NYT)
• Target builds on momentum, announces 2021 strategic investments (Target)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The tragic futility of investing to catch up (Medium)
• The future of customer experience (McKinsey)
• The TikTok feta effect (NYT) 
• Macy's, Gap, Neiman Marcus will now let you buy now, pay later (WSJ)
• Black employees say Amazon has a race problem (Vox)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Warren Buffett's 2020 letter to shareholders (Berkshire Hathaway)
• The secret economics of food delivery (The Economist)
• UPS boss preaches the power of 'no' (WSJ)
• If DoorDash wins, what do we lose (Fast Company)
• What happens when a publisher becomes a megapublisher (NYT)