Stephan's Monday Picks

• Dates are suddenly on track to become a $55 billion market (Inc)
• Big box retailers have a new strategy of breaking into urban markets (NYT)
• How Aldi is taking on US supermarkets with its $4 almond butter (BBC)
• Why are berries everywhere, in every season? Driscoll's (NYT)
• Michael's goes form 'grandma's store' to unlikely success under Apollo (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• GLP-1 users are taking a bite out of restaurants (WSJ)
• Why are life is now on subscriptions (NYT)
• The shoppers redefining how to save money on groceries (NPR)
• The world is awash in bourbon. That's a problem for big booze (WSJ)
• Do you have a mango dealer (FT)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• CEO Andy Jassy's 2025 Letter to Shareholders (Amazon)
• Top Canadian grocers downgraded as Scotiabank flags increased competition (Bloomberg)
• How war in the Middle East paralyzed an Asian food giant (NYT)
• Unilever acquires vitamin gummies brand Gruns in wellness push (FT)
• Aldi and Lidl rivalry heats up in race for UK discount shoppers (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Becoming an effective strategy-led CEO advisor (Medium)
• As grocery prices soar, this German grocery store is conquering America (Washington Post)
• How grocery giants control who can sell food in your neighbourhood (CBC)
• Nestle's new baby formula woes challenge CEO's revamp plan (Bloomberg)
• AI tries product development (WSJ)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Inside the mad dash to save Saks, America's last luxury retailer (WSJ)
• What does the Saks bankruptcy mean for customers (NYT)
• Bargain grocer Aldi seizes the moment in an era of higher prices (Washington Post)
• Manitoba won't increase the price of 1L cartons of milk: premier (CBC)
• From the archives (2004): Consider the lobster (Gourmet)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• The curious cult of Aldi (Bloomberg)
• Amazon AI tool blindsides merchants by offering products without their knowledge (Bloomberg)
• Can we save wine from wildfires (The New Yorker)
• Morgan Housel: A few things I'm pretty sure about (Collaborative Fund)
• From the archives (2012): The $1.6 billion grocery flop: Tesco poised to quit the U.S. (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Thomson and Weston families submit $18 billion joint bid for Hudson's Bay charter (Globe and Mail)
• Kroger expands partnership with DoorDash, Instacart, Uber Eats (WSJ)
• Aldi effect sweeps supermarkets as US embraces private label (FT)
• Pop Mart's Labubu risks Beanie Baby-style collapse, analyst says (Bloomberg)
• Protein has gone mainstream. But how much do you actually need (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Roger Martin: The future of the middle class depends on frontline service jobs (Medium)
• Aldi wants to conquer the American grocery store landscape (WSJ)
• Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies (WSJ)
• A flurry of deals is changing who owns your breakfast (Bloomberg)
• Luxury fashion seller Ssense to seek protection after clash with creditors (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Aldi's passionate, cultlike following fuels its rapid expansion plan (NYT)
• Shopify again becomes Canada's most valuable company after big second quarter (Globe and Mail)
• Canadian Tire sales grow in second quarter, profit down (Globe and Mail)
• McDonald's sales return to growth, pushed by promotions (NYT)
• From the archives (2009): Aldi looks to the U.S. for growth (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Thinking more strategically about where to play (Medium)
• Building a destination for pet parents (McKinsey)
• Meet the pastry chef known as the 'Scone Master' (Globe and Mail)
• Life's ancient bottleneck (Quillette)
• Snack maker sues Aldi grocery chain over look-alike product packaging (NYT)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Inside the final days of Hudson's Bay (Globe and Mail)
• The plan that could have saved Hudson's Bay as we know it (Globe and Mail)
• She always felt like an outsider. Now it's this CEO's superpower (WSJ)
• Aldi owners holding talks about possible merger (Bloomberg)
  
• Retailers flex their vocabulary to war of potential tariff-driven price hikes (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The secret world of Aldi Australia (The Guardian)
• The state of fashion 2025 (McKinsey)
• Alcohol brands tap the art world to woo younger drinkers (NYT)
• Amazon targets delivery operations in bid for bigger grocery business (WSJ)
• Many retailers offer 'returnless refunds'. Just don't ask them to say for which products (AP)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Sainsbury's to rival Aldi prices in smallest stores (BBC)
• It took 3 years to convince Costco to buy her snacks - that was the easy part (WSJ)
• Starbucks CEO promises 4-minute coffee in sales turnaround (Bloomberg)
• Toronto luxury retailers are reviving in-store shopping (Globe and Mail)
• The mysterious fees inflating your grocery bill (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Overcoming the integrative strategy challenge (Medium)
• Ontario grocery store operators raise concerns about requirement to take back empty alcohol containers (Globe and Mail)
• Shaking the wild banana (NYT)
• Australia supermarkets sued over fake discount claims (BBC)
• Tesco's Aldi price-matched items are not like-for-like, report says (The Guardian)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: How to be a good board member (Medium)
• Will Americans ever get sick of cheap junk (The Atlantic)
• Rising food prices send more shoppers to Aldi (WSJ)
• How supplement stores are trying to tap into the Ozempic boom (NYT)
• Billionaire Geiger nears $7 billion L'Occitane buyout sources say (Bloomberg)

 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 Monday Picks

• Google is finally killing cookies. Advertisers still aren't ready (WSJ)
• AI is coming for the influencers (New York Magazine)
• Aldi and Lidl hail Christmas boost from bargain hunters (BBC)
• Carrefour drops PepsiCo products in France over price increases (NYT)
• Behind cheap stuff from Shein and Temu: A hard bargain with suppliers (WSJ)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Amazon dedicates team to train ambitious AI model codenamed 'Olympus' (Reuters)
• Indigo reports $22.4 million second quarter loss as consumers pull back (Globe and Mail)
• Shein targets up to $90 billion valuation in US IPO (Bloomberg)
• How Germany got hooked on Canadian maple syrup (Globe and Mail)
• Aldi and Lidl are now just as middle class as other UK grocers (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Why Aldi is the fastest-growing grocer in the U.S. (WSJ)
• The power of partnership: How the CEO-CMO relationship can drive outsized growth (McKinsey)
• The apple-picking apocalypse of upstate New York (NYT)
• Sainsbury's declares it is winning back Aldi and Lidl customers (The Guardian)
• Instacart's delicious little secret (The Information)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Newer Nordic: The next wave of Copenhagen's fine-dining revolution (FT)
• Is an all-meat diet what nature intended (The New Yorker)
• Shopping habits have shifted for good, says Aldi (BBC)
• Canada's population surges on 46% jump in temporary residents (Globe and Mail)
• Working at Dollar General is so horrible even the investors are concerned (Bloomberg)