Stephan's Friday Picks

• The internet almost killed Barnes & Noble, then saved it (Bloomberg)
• 3 reasons to love fresh food (NYT)
• One of the U.S's largest cable providers is buying up Canada's greenhouses (Globe and Mail)
• UPS stock sinks on plans to slash business with Amazon (WSJ)
• From the archives (2017): Online retail, disrupting retail, and drivers' lives (NYT)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Starbucks reports weak earnings as it tries to woo back customers (NYT)
• The buy, wear, return days for shoppers could be over now that retailers and tech are catching on (Globe and Mail)
• Seeking new foods, scientists look to bacteria, algae, and more (Undark)
• Why some Heinz ketchup bottles still say 'Product of USA' (CBC)
• CVS knows you hate those locked cabinets (NYT)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• World's biggest pork producer Smithfield raises $522 million in IPO (Bloomberg)
• Metro reports higher first-quarter profit, boosts dividend after 'transition' year (Globe and Mail)
• Asheville's big attraction, its food scene, tries to hit reset (NYT)
• CVS wants to help you spend less time in CVS (WSJ)
• Metro CEO says weak loonie is putting pressure on food costs (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Four years of Playing to Win (Medium)
• America's $3 billion habit: Meat sticks (WSJ)
• America's fight with unions heads to its grocery stores (NYT)
• Retail consolidation stifles innovation in food production, report says (Globe and Mail)
• In Quebec, an Amazon union push gets snuffed out (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Food prices are rising again (WSJ)
• Canadian retailers are facing a $9.1 billion problem (Globe and Mail)
• CBC News finds more underweighted meat as demand grows for big grocers to be held accountable (CBC)
• Starbucks new CEO has already been awarded $96 million (WSJ)
• P&G stopped hiking prices and sales still grew last quarter (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Four keys to winning in Europe's consumer goods market (McKinsey)
• Is the LCBO the largest alcohol purchaser of the world (Globe and Mail)
• Some Walmart managers get a raise, lifting their max pay above $600,000 (WSJ)
• Sainsbury's to cut more than 3,000 jobs (WSJ)
• From the archives (2002): Is Wal-Mart too powerful (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The DEI retreat has some notable holdouts (NYT)
• Amazon to close all seven of its Quebec warehouses, to lay off 1,700 permanent staff (Globe and Mail)
• Want an authentic travel experience. Try McDonald's (NYT)
• How should Canadian consumers prepare for a trade war (Globe and Mail)
• Michael Froman on the business implications of geopolitics (McKinsey)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The Swiss sneaker brand outrunning Nike and Adidas (Bloomberg)
• Inside the Chinese factories fueling Shein's success (BBC)
• Aritzia is facing a daunting task: Living up to investor expectations (Globe and Mail)
• Aritzia, Canadian Tire, Lululemon among Canadian retailers shifting production outside China (CBC)
• The alcohol industry is hooked on its heaviest drinkers (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Playing to Win / Practitioner Insights Series Year IV Review (Medium) 
• The era of finance CEOs running retailers is over (Bloomberg)
• How Vuori became one of the hottest names in fashion (NYT)
• Kohl's shoppers want its new CEO to undo what the last one did (WSJ)
• The Westons have donated to health and environmental causes for years. Now they're backing startups in both areas (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• FTC sues PepsiCo, alleging it gave Walmart an unfair advantage (WSJ)
• Walgreens replaced fridge doors with smart screens. It's now a $200 million fiasco (Bloomberg)
• Soda's rebound moment (The Atlantic)
• Adapting to Canada's consumer revolution (BCG)
• How do you convince consumers to eat plant-based meat (NYT)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Hershey wants special permission to buy over 90,000 metric tons of cocoa (Bloomberg)
  
• Symbotic to buy Walmart's advanced systems and robotics unit, signs commercial agreement (WSJ)
• Whiskey is flowing in India. Cashing in is the hard part (Bloomberg)
• MEC up for sale again as pandemic spending surge leaves it with too much inventory (Globe and Mail)
• From the archives (2005): The power of happiness (Rotman Magazine)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Why everyone's obsessed with meat sticks and cottage cheese (Bloomberg)
• Dynamic pricing at grocery stores? Electronic shelf labels could make budgeting the wild west (Globe and Mail)
• How Starbucks became a sugary teen emporium (Bloomberg)
• Can the only grocery store in a rural Michigan town stay independent (NYT)
• Biden proposes front-of-pack labels in his final days in office (Washington Post)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The state of luxury: How to navigate a slowdown (McKinsey)
• Staying up late at the 24-hour diner (NYT)
• DHL buys into the growing retail returns business (WSJ)
• How Athletic sparked the nonalcoholic beer boom with brews that don't suck (Bloomberg)
• Canada approves Bunge's $8.2- billion deal for Viterra (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Hanging out at Starbucks? You now need to order something (WSJ)
• With wine flowing between B.C. and Alberta, makers look to free trade across Canada (Globe and Mail)
• McDonald's sued over Latino scholarships, one week after retreating on diversity (WSJ)
• How Poshmark is trying to make resale work again (NYT)
• America's bourbon boom is over. Now the hangover is here (WSJ)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Where do your spices come from (NYT)
• How beauty players can scale gen AI in 2025 (McKinsey)
• Americans are tipping less than they have in six years (WSJ)
• The gilded age of medicine is here (The New Yorker)
• Chick-fil-A's lemon-squeezing robots are saving 10,000 hours of work (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• CBC investigation uncovers grocers overcharging customers by selling underweighted meat (CBC)
• Tesco backs profit target after Christmas sales growth (WSJ)
• 7-Eleven owner reports profit drop, keeps guidance (WSJ)
• Ottawa targets raft of U.S. goods, including steel products and Florida orange juice, for tariffs (Globe and Mail)
• From the archives (2005): Wal-Mart: A progressive success story (Jason Furman)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Dinner is terrible (The Atlantic)
• Harnessing revenue growth management for sustainable success (McKinsey)
• Owners of Canadian clothing brands Frank + Oak, Ricki's file for creditor protection (Globe and Mail)
• Shein's lack of answers on China forced-labour concerns angers U.K. lawmakers (WSJ)
• Robotic technology automating mushroom harvest as industry facing labour challenges (Globe and Mail)

  Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Artificial intelligence and inflation forecasts (St. Louis Fed)
• Putting AI to the test (Globe and Mail)
• Retail is fashionable with property investors again, but only the unflashly kind (WSJ)
• What happens when TikTok's trend machine shuts down (Bloomberg)
• How Shopify went from being a startup to an e-commerce giant (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigns as leader (Globe and Mail)
• Roger Martin: Risk management and strategy (Medium)
• Inside the biggest police takedown ever at Shoppers Drug Mart (The Star)
• Coffee's grip on America (The Atlantic)
• Smithfield Foods first to publicly file in 2025 for big US IPO (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Surgeon General calls for cancer warning on alcohol (NYT)
• The rise of Big Potato (Lever)
• In the colossus of beef, Argentines are increasingly turning to pork (Washington Post)
• Why breakfast is busting your food budget (WSJ)
• How saffron, a precious import, became an American cash crop (NYT)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Rogers Sugar spends big on Montreal expansion (Globe and Mail)
• Big Retail gets bigger as smaller retailers struggle (WSJ)
• How changing demographics and tastes are shaping Canada's grocery stores (Globe and Mail)
• Toys 'R' Us Canada closing five stores, expand HMV, and add play spaces to some stores (Globe and Mail)
• From the archivers (2011): A historical geography of retailing in London, Canada (Social Science History) 

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Your fast food is already automated (The Atlantic)
• 9 food predictions for 2025 (NYT)
• Food tourism is dead, but something more interesting is emerging (NYT)
• Alibaba to sell stake in Chinese hypermarket operator (WSJ)
• Boom in US retail real estate defies prediction of e-commerce apocalypse (FT)