Stephan's Friday Picks

• How the sausage is made (Grub Street)
• Alimentation Couche-Tard CEO Brian Hannasch to retire in September (Globe and Mail)
• The AI boom has an unlikely early winner: wonky consultants (NYT) 
• McDonald's says no thanks to plant-based burgers (Quartz)
• Meet Brian Hannasch, the American in charge of a beloved Quebec brand (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• LVMH's Bernard Arnault emerges as personal stakeholder in Richemont (FT)
• DoorDash held talks with UKs Deliveroo on takeover (Reuters)
• Ottawa ends decades-long ban on Newfoundland's Northern cod fishing (Globe and Mail)
• Shopify beefs up AI offerings with new products meant to boost merchants' sales (Globe and Mail)
• Why your Starbucks Frappuccino is now half price (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Getir set for breakup and Mubadala cash injection (FT)
• Canada's boss economy: What explains the boom in management jobs (Globe and Mail)
• Go woke, go broke? Not a chance, say Ben and Jerry (WSJ)
• BoC's Macklem says Canadian economy appears to be on track for soft landing (Globe and Mail)
• Every year, StatsCan tweaks how it calculates inflation. Here's what you need to know about this year's changes (CBC)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: How management can most effectively use boards (Medium)
• How pets became big business (NYT)
• The crazy economics of the world's most coveted handbag (WSJ)
• What it takes to rewire a CPG company to outcompete in digital and AI (McKinsey)
• Amazon mulls monthly fee as part of revamp of unprofitable Alexa service to include generative AI (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels (NPR)
• Target tests an AI tool to help its works aid shoppers (NYT)
• Americans have lost the plot on cooking oil (The Atlantic)
• How to avoid scams and shoddy wares on Amazon (Wired)
• How PBMs are driving up prescription drug costs (NYT)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Sobeys slowing e-commerce expansion in bid to improve profitability (Globe and Mail)
• The self-checkout revolution (WSJ)
• Boston Pizza scales down in bid to serve underserved markets (Globe and Mail)
• How retail media can top the CMO agenda (BCG)
• From the archives (2018): The Ocado Way: The British future of grocery e-commerce is coming to Canada (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Rescuing the decade: A dual agenda for the consumer goods industry (McKinsey)
• Ottawa set to stop open-net salmon farms in B.C., giving the industry 5 years to transition (Globe and Mail)
• McDonald's ends AI drive-thru trial as fast-food industry tests automation (The Guardian)
• Oxtail is gaining fans. Not everyone is happy about that (NYT)
• Revolutionizing procurement: Leveraging data and AI for strategic advantage (McKinsey)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• For Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, machines are closer to humans than we think (Globe and Mail)
• B.C. sets minimum wage, other rules for app-based ride hailing, food delivery (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon fined by California for failing to disclose worker quotas (WSJ)
• Grieving families blame Panera's charged lemonade for leaving a deadly legacy (Bloomberg)
• Customer experience gets worse. Again (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Strategy at human scale (Medium)
• Rice farming gets an AI upgrade (Hakai Magazine)
• The impact of rising cocoa prices (JP Morgan)
• LCBO blindsided by Ontario cancelling pilot to scan customer ID's at northern stores, exec emails show (CBC)
• China's lust for durian is creating fortunes in Southeast Asia (NYT)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Banana giant held liable for funding paramilitaries (BBC)
• Four major UK supermarkets accused of misleading 'freshly baked' bread claim (The Guardian)
• Yum! Brands former CEO on why you should never stop learning (HBR)
• Keep calm and allocate capital (McKinsey)
• Inside Mexico's anti-avocado militias (The Guardian)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Dollarama sees profit jump 20% in first quarter (Globe and Mail)
• Creating a data advantage in marketing (BCG)
• State of the consumer 2024 (McKinsey)
• The end of one-stop shopping (Axios)
• From the archives (2023): As dollar stores proliferate, some communities say no (NYT)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The QR backlash has won. Restaurants are ditching them (WSJ)
• How Amazon blew Alexa's shot to dominate AI (Fortune)
• Applebee's, IHOP look to service diners hungry for deals. Will profits take a hit (WSJ)
• Games are proving their pull on news and tech sites (NYTNYT)
• Target's online chief turned to stores to solve its online fulfillment problem (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Shopping centers are making a comeback (NYT)
• Costco is the hero America needs now (Washington Post)
• Don't call it an 'ethnic' grocery store (NYT)
• Alibaba's new e-commerce strategy faces tough competition (WSJ)
• Ontario College of Pharmacists director under pressure to step down over Shoppers Drug Mart lawsuit (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The downside of scaling strategies (Medium)
• How the fridge changed flavor (The New Yorker)
• The ballad of Birkenstock (Bloomberg)
• Food companies are still paying the price for years of inflation (WSJ)
• The food fight for Swiss Chalet is a lesson for all family owned companies (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Why are Target and Walgreens slashing prices (The Cut)
• Ultra-cheap meals from China's delivery giant are hugely popular. Deliver drivers are bearing the cost (Rest of World)
• Canadian agri-tech tackles food insecurity with AI and automation (Globe and Mail)
• Canadian retailer Simons is expanding. Can it succeed where its peers couldn't (CBC)
• Japan runs on vending machines. It's about to break millions of them (NYT)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Harnessing analytics and AI to shape the future of mobility retail (McKinsey)
• This is peak subscription (The Atlantic)
• Mindshare matters. Now markets can measure it (BCG)
• Why Lululemon's stock is going out of fashion (WSJ)
• From the archives (2015): Lululemon combines Ayn Rand and yoga (NYT)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Best Buy catches AI fever (WSJ)
• Walmart CEO Doug McMillon's success story (Fortune)
• Retailers hate when you buy big things on your laptop (WSJ)
• How Beyond Meat is trying to get its sizzle back (LA Times)
• Dollar Tree explores sale of Family Dollar (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Why US grocers must play to their strengths (BCG)
• Canada's first full-scale free grocery store to open in Regina (CBC)
• Generative AI is now scanning your Amazon packages for defects before they get shipped out (Fast Company)
• Companies are getting smarter about raising their prices (Bloomberg)
• Nestle CEO says feeding ageing populations a priority as birth rates fall (FT)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Strategy & Scale: Lessons from architecture (Medium)
• Are loyalty card discounts a good deal for UK consumers (The Guardian)
• Walmart Canada CEO sees growth in groceries as $3.5 billion revamp plan unfolds (Globe and Mail)
• Waitrose committed to paying more for cocoa. Chocolate bar sales skyrocketed (WSJ)
• Feeling consumers' pain, retailers bring back discounts (NYT)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Dr. Pepper ties Pepsi as America's #2 soda (WSJ)
• Amazon to expand drone delivery service after clearing FAA hurdle (CNBC)
• Costco and BJ's, usually go-to's for everyday foods, now gobbling up discretionary market share (WSJ)
• Why Canadians pay different prices for the same groceries (CBC)
• Asics stock catches fire along with its dad shoes (WSJ)