Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Inside the colorful, cultish world of Nerds gummy clusters (NYT)
• Amazon reportedly sets out ultra-low pricing plans for Temu rival store (Globe and Mail)
• Is the Kindle Colorsoft too late? Amazon reveals what took so long to catch up (Wired)
• Big Food is learning to love weight-loss drugs (WSJ)
• Woolworths cuts expectations for Australian food earnings (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• A 'high touch' warehouse for exacting brands (NYT)
• Police investigate 'large-scale' butter stores from Guelph (Globe and Mail)
• Walmart, LCBO are the latest retailers to embrace plastic bags. Environmentalists are concerned (CBC)
• Scammers steal $390,000 of British cheese (NYT)
• Food banks in Newfoundland are so desperate, they're even cutting back on instant coffee (CBC)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Home Depot's 12-foot skeletons spawned an industry of giant Halloween decor (Bloomberg)
• Albertsons taps Donald as sole chairman, Galbato to step down (WSJ)
• How Starbucks became a sugary teen emporium (Bloomberg)
• Gen AI in corporate functions: Looking beyond efficiency gains (McKinsey)
• At Boeing and Starbucks, different problems but similar CEO messages (WSJ)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• America's newest hit candy is gummy, crunchy, and printing money (WSJ)
• Mr. Bezos went to Washington. But he never arrived (NYT)
• 'Back to Starbucks' could have a retro feel - and valuation (WSJ)
• Efforts to add Maple Leaf Foods to bread-price fixing class action denied (Globe and Mail)
• Coffee price war burns Keurig and Starbucks (WSJ)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Keurig Dr. Pepper to buy energy-drink maker Ghost for over $1 billion (WSJ)
• Canada tightens immigration after years of expansion (NYT)
• Walmart to offer prescription delivery, challenging Amazon (Bloomberg)
• Kroger and Walmart deny 'surge pricing' after adopting digital price tags (NYT)
• From the archives (2018): Keurig to acquire Dr. Pepper Snapple for $19 billion in largest soft-drink deal ever (WSJ)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Coke, Twinkles, Skittles, and ... whole-grain bread? (The Atlantic)
• Costco has a magazine and it's thriving (NYT)
• How Spindrift broke through the cluttered seltzer space (Bloomberg)
• The quest to save the 'king' of Japanese rice from rising temperatures (NYT)
• Closed for business? Confusion reigns: Canada needs credible immigration anchors (Scotiabank)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Is there still any pop left in California's fight against soda (Politico)
• Nestle says slowdown in rising food costs isn't soothing pinched shoppers (WSJ)
• At the grocery store, blinded by the light of the 'health halo' (NYT)
• The weird history of the barcode (BBC)
• Bed Bath & Beyond stores to return in $25 million partnership with Kirkland's (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Statistical process control and strategy (Medium)
• The old school spy tactics helping to set your grocery prices (WSJ)
• CVS ousts Karen Lynch as CEO and shares fall (NYT)
• The new e-commerce innovation imperative for retailers (BCG)
• The powerful companies driving local drugstores out of business (NYT)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• CVS names David Joyner new chief executive (WSJ)
• Canada's dairy farms dump 7 per cent of all milk produced, study contends (Globe and Mail)
• P&G earnings: Sales slip but it holds the line on prices (WSJ)
• Couche-Tard says it won't back down from pursuit of 7-Eleven's owner (Globe and Mail)
• An enclave of wealth mourns the loss of Kmart (WSJ)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Measuring the moat (Morgan Stanley)
• Shareholder urges 7-Eleven owner to engage in talks with Couche-Tard over takeover offer (Globe and Mail)
• Couche-Tard executives make case to buy Seven & i in Tokyo (Bloomberg)
• Hope stirs in the fight to free the milk and sugar at Starbucks (WSJ)
• From the archives (2004): 7-Eleven plans to move into malls (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Thursday picks

• Walgreens says it will close 1,200 stores (NYT)
• Home Depot is dropping warehouses in a shifting retail market (WSJ)
• Shoplifters gone wild (The Atlantic)
• Amazon joins Big Tech foray into nuclear power (WSJ)
• Project to revive Montreal melon hopes Quebecois nostalgia will bear fruit where others have failed (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Portfolio and performance: Priorities for CPG leaders (McKinsey)
• How U.S. fast food took over the world - and then went local (The Dial)
• Bakers brace for costly Christmas as butter prices surge (Reuters)
• What a crackdown on immigration could mean for cheap milk (NYT)
• Attention Kmart shoppers - it's closing time (NYT)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The strategic choice structuring process - theory and practice (Medium)
• The most miraculous, and overlooked, type of milk (The Atlantic) 
• The scandal of food waste - and how we can stop it (The Guardian)
• Falling earnings put pressure on Seven & i to engage with Couche-Tard's $47 billion offer (Globe and Mail)
• The family that went against the grain - and built a billion-dollar company (WSJ)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• The real value of a digital and AI transformation in CPG (McKinsey)
• IKEA annual sales fall after lowering prices (WSJ)
• Amazon could be forced to treat drivers as employees (NYT)
• 7-Eleven owner plans revamp of non-core businesses amid buyout interest from Couche-Tard (WSJ)
• From the archives (2016): IKEA forever (NYT)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• At a Brooklyn warehouse, robots are reshaping the grocery delivery business (WSJ)
• Ontario to allow sales of fortified wines like port and sherry in convenience stores (CBC
• Gen Z and millennials go to wine bars for the vibes, as well as for the wine (NYT)
• How Walmart's Donna Morris manages the largest work force in America (NYT)
• Couche-Tard sharply raises its offer for 7-Eleven owner to $47 billion (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Geoffrey Hinton, who warned of AI's dangers, co-wins the Nobel Prize in Physics (Globe and Mail)
• Shein's founder heads to U.S. to meet with investors ahead of London IPO (WSJ)
• Rotting rice in India fuels discontent over Modi's food policy (Bloomberg)
• How e-commerce is making China's deflation worse (NYT)
• The battle over robots at U.S. ports is on (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The signs of a good CEO (Medium)
• Amazon and Temu's new battleground: Winning over sellers (WSJ)
• How online retailers can avoid costly out-of-stock issues (HBR)
• Sometimes the best restaurant is inside the grocery store (NYT)
• Winemaker Duckhorn agrees to be taken private in $1.95 billion deal (WSJ)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Can a neon-blue gummy worm cocktail save the movies (NYT)
• How far would you go for a single bite (NYT)
• We're drowning in reusable bags. Are bag profits preventing big grocers from adopting sustainable solutions (CBC)
• The price of private equity may be too high for Asda (FT)
• The airline retailing opportunity (McKinsey)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Families are shrinking as people have fewer children - or none at all (CBC)
• Boar's Head disaster shows the price of deregulation (Bloomberg)
• Behold dairy lobby's power, as Bloc holds Liberals hostage over supply management (Globe and Mail)
• How Bogg bags, the Crocs of totes, won over America's moms (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2017): The many failings of supply management are the government's problems, not the farmers' (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Walmart's terrible, horrible, no-good, very badly timed JD.com block trade (FT)
• FTC can proceed with its antitrust claims against Amazon, judge rules (Washington Post)
• CVS, considering a breakup, will find its hard to do (WSJ)
• Canadian Tire store in Toronto under investigation for alleged mistreatment of temporary foreign workers (Globe and Mail)
• The Whole Foods 'Chantilly Gate' saga shows complaining works sometimes (Eater)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• CVS explores options including breakup, sources say (Reuters)
• PepsiCo nears deal for tortilla chip maker Siete Foods (WSJ)
• Meet the star of Sushi-Con: A 400-pound tuna (NYT)
• The great $4.5 billion container heist (Bloomberg)
• How chicken tenders conquered America (NYT)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Personal effectiveness strategy (Medium)
• Vintage shopping is booming. Banana Republic and others get in on the action (NYT)
• Major CVS shareholders plans activist push (CNBC)
• Is food the new fuel? Convenience stores look to become food destinations (Globe and Mail)
• Inside Domino's quest to revive sales with 'emergency pizza (WSJ)