Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The fight for AI talent (WSJ)
• Lidl US expands garden centre concept (Lidl)
• Kroger to close three Ocado fulfillment centres (Grocery Dive)
• Temporary residents jump to 2.7 million as Ottawa tries to curb migration (Globe and Mail)
• From the archives (1992): Priced to go (The New Yorker)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Larry Fink's 2024 Annual Chairman's Letter to Shareholders (BlackRock)
• Ontario College of Pharmacists seeks restrictions on exclusive deals with insurers (Globe and Mail)
• Visa and Mastercard agree to cap swipe fees in settlement (NYT)
• Lina Khan: America has a resiliency problem (Foreign Policy)
• With move to limit temporary workers, Ottawa is 'attacking the demand curve now' (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Michael Porter's three great strategy contributions (Medium)
• One CEOs radical fix for corporate troubles: Purge the bosses (WSJ)
• Philip Kotler and Giuseppe Stigliano on redefining retail (McKinsey)
• Dynamic pricing is coming for everything (Vox)
• This startup promised to help fashion go green. Brands didn't want to pay for it (WSJ)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Weston, McCain met to discuss bread prices, plaintiffs in class action lawsuit allege (Globe and Mail)
• Large grocers took advantage of pandemic supply chain disruptions, F.T.C says (NYT)
• Poland's grocery price war is spurring losses in retailer shares (Bloomberg)
• With TikTok under fire, brands that rely on it worry (NYT)
• Food weaponization makes a deadly comeback (Foreign Affairs)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Discount grocers smell opportunity amid rising prices (Washington Post)
• Amazon's new focus: Fending off rivals Temu and Shein (WSJ)
• Canada's population shock drives most of recent productivity declines (Globe and Mail)
• Unilever approaches private equity for its ice cream business (FT)
• From the archives (2000): Ben & Jerry's to Unilever, with attitude (NYT)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Wonder, Mac Lore's food-delivery startup, raises $700 million (WSJ)
• Beauty stores like Sephora draw teens driven by social media (NYT)
• Dynamic pricing is coming for grocery stores (NPR)
• Canada's inflation rate takes a surprising dip to 2.8% (Globe and Mail)
• How AI is transforming the business of advertising (FT)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• AI-generated food photos look tastier than the real deal, study finds (National Post)
• FedEx and Amazon discussed partnership as competition for returning packages intensifies (WSJ)
• How dollar stores exacerbated American food deserts - and what it means when they leave them (Salon)
• What must Nelson Peltz do to get some respect (NYT)
• Ben & Jerry's owner loses its taste for ice cream (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Investment strategy and artificial intelligence (Medium)
• Did a wine-world insider swindle his Bordeaux-swilling pals (Grub Street)
• Costco is about to open sushi counters nationwide (Food & Wine)
• Using AI to identify edible mushrooms could kill you (Washington Post)
• Crafts retailer Joann goes bankrupt as consumers retreat (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• The Vicunas and the $9,000 sweater (Bloomberg)
• Of course America fell for Liquid Death (The Atlantic)
• Empire sees comparable sales growth, declining adjusted profits as shoppers feel inflation (Globe and Mail)
• The delivery driver who took on his faceless boss (FT)
• Amazon will let sellers paste a link so AI can make a product page (The Verge)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Harry Rosen launching $50-million overhaul of its retail stores over five years (Globe and Mail)
• Why we're now living in the golden age of snack food (Bloomberg)
• Shoppers Drug Mart says it doesn't have medication review targets, but records show it does (CBC)
• How can we transition to a more sustainable protein production (BCG)
• From the archives (1970): How Colonel Sanders built a fried chicken empire (The New Yorker)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• We still don't know how much things cost (WSJ)
• Dollar Tree, Family Dollar to close more than 1,000 stores (Washington Post)
• Loblaw facing backlash as it tests receipt scanners at self-checkout (CBC)
• HelloFresh investors struggle to swallow strategy revamp (Globe and Mail)
• Altria Group plans to sell part of Anheuser-Busch stake (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Marc Lore is trying to build the Amazon of food delivery (NYT)
• Lego builds market share as ever-popular toy bricks defy demand drop (WSJ)
• Walmart wants to teach store managers compassion (NYT)
• How KitchenAid chooses colours for its appliances and cookware (Eater)
• The new science of what ultra-processed food does to your brain (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Strategy & artificial intelligence (Medium)
• When your restaurant cancellation fee costs as much as your dinner (NYT)
• Manulife drug plan members continue to face barriers when trying to fill prescriptions at pharmacies of their choice (Globe and Mail)
• Fruit chaos is coming (The Atlantic)
• Chocolate makers try a new recipe: Less chocolate (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• How restaurants defied the doomers (The Atlantic)
• Why cabbage is the coolest menu item (NYT)
• Why you can't get a table for six at a restaurant (WSJ)
• Consumer goods: A changing landscape for successful M&A (McKinsey)
• New York-style bagels are making it big in London (NYT)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Analyzing the CEO-CMO relationship and its effect on growth (McKinsey)
• Amazon is launching a smaller version of Whole Foods (Quartz)
• Aldi to add 800 new U.S. grocery stores by 2028 (CNBC)
• Europe is wargaming a food crisis (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (1997): The forgotten benefactor of humanity (The Atlantic)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The $2.99 Trader Joe's tote is causing chaos (NYT)
• Asia's e-commerce battleground is expanding fast (WSJ)
• The mysterious rise of the Chinese ecommerce giant behind Temu (FT)
• Temu's push into America pays off big for Meta and Google (WSJ)
• Bank of Canada holds interest rate steady, offers few hints about timing of future cuts (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Enshrining structural presumptions governing mergers in the Competition Act is not good for Canada's competitiveness (CD Howe Institute)
• Grocery prices are higher than ever - could chains like Walmart help (Vox)
• Ozempic may blow the federal budget (NYT)
• The battle over the trillion dollar weight-loss bonanza (The Economist)
• Investors raise Macy's buyout bid (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The magnificent seven stocks (Medium)
• The economics of smaller groceries (NYT)
• The skyrocketing costs driving cheeseburger prices up - and restaurant owners out (WSJ)
• The Body Shop to cut more than 200 jobs in Canada (Globe and Mail)
• Macy's stores aren't fun places to shop. It's new CEO wants to fix that (WSJ)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Cost of capital and capital allocation (Morgan Stanley)
• The zombie CVS, a late-capitalism horror story (Washington Post)
• The Body Shop Canada to close 33 stores, end online sales (CBC)
• Here's a reason why people may be gloomy about the economy: the cost of money (NPR)
• Why Costco is so loved (The Economist)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Corporate pressure led Shoppers Drug Mart staff to bill for unnecessary medication reviews, pharmacists say (CBC)
• Amazon's big secret (The Atlantic)
• Grocery prices, inflation, and 'bad vibes' (NYT)
• Pharmacy association lodges Competition Bureau complaint over Express Scripts fees (Globe and Mail)
• From the archives (2016): Rexall takeover shakes up pharmacy industry (Globe and Mail)