Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Son of DavidsTea founder calls for leadership overhaul, accusing company of poor governance (Globe and Mail)
• August inflation rate ticks up to 1.9%, rising less than expected (Globe and Mail)
• What's the Lububu craze all about? And how long can it last (Bloomberg)
• The grilled chicken chain joining the crispy poultry frenzy. Sort of (WSJ)
• Jack Ma returns with a vengeance to 'Make Alibaba Great Again' (Bloomberg)

 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)

 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 Wednesday Picks

• What if farmers had to pay for water (NYT)
• How Ikea downsized to go downtown (WSJ)
• The rise and fall of Alibaba (FT)
• The rise and fall of prime rib nation (NYT)
• India's food security problem is also the world's (WSJ)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Jack Ma ally Joe Tsai to take helm of Alibaba (WSJ)
• Amazon HQ2 is not matching the original hype (CNBC)
• Grupo Bimbo's Canada Bread to pay $50 million fine in bread price-fixing settlement (Globe and Mail)
• Running Amazon became a lot less fun once Jeff Bezos left (Slate)
• U.S. approves the sale of lab-grown chicken (NYT)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Alibaba has invented the supermarket of the future (Wired)
• The thriving business of Ikea-hacking (The Hustle)
• Retail workers are leaving at record rates for higher-paying jobs (Washington Post)
• Beyond Meat sparked a run on peas and a protein revolution (Bloomberg)
• Hudson's Bay turns Saks Off Fifth e-commerce business into standalone company, sells stake for $200 million (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• The sandwich economics of the Masters and Augusta National (NYT)
• Why giant jeans are making a comeback (WSJ)
• China fines Alibaba record $2.8 billion after monopoly probe (Bloomberg)
• Ontario retailers adjust to new rules, non-essential goods off-limits to shoppers (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon workers vote down union drive at Alabama warehouse (NYT)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• On the inseparability of where-to-play and how-to-win (Medium)
• Why Google's recipe results are meaningless (Slate)
• How SoulCycle lost its soul (Vox)
• With Alibaba investigation, China gets tougher on tech (NYT)
• Galen Weston becomes controlling shareholder of grocery empire (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• The future of McDonald's in in the drive-thru lane (Wired)
• On Alibaba's Singles' Day in China, couriers clamor for more (NYT)
• Walmart adding 'pop-up' centers for online holiday sales (WSJ)
• Grocery shoppers trade up as Covid cases rise (CNBC)
• The big lessons from history (Collaborative Fund)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• M&S and Ocado cause anger with different pricing on same item (The Guardian)
• Alibaba takes on Walmart in China with $3.6 billion investment (WSJ)
• Retailers revel as stuff, not experiences, makes a comeback (Bloomberg)
• P&G, Reckitt, clean up on pandemic-driven hygiene (WSJ)
• People don't need bottled water in a pandemic (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Inside the startling, chaotic rise of Alibaba's Singles Day (Wired)
• Here's how KKR could take Walgreens private in biggest LBO (Bloomberg)
• Why pop-up shops are suddenly everywhere (The Atlantic)
• Inside Walmart's corporate culture clash over e-commerce (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2016): In praise of the Yukon Gold potato (Macleans)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• How grocery stores saved food from Hurricane Dorian (CBC)
• America's long history of resisting self-service (Bloomberg)
• Forever 21 plans to file for bankruptcy as early as Sunday (WSJ)
• An interview with Alibaba chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang (McKinsey)
• From the archives (1999): Anthony Bourdain: Don't eat before reading this (The New Yorker)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Impossible Foods is introducing a (fish-less) fish product (NYT)
• Amazon Alexa offering NHS health advice (BBC)
• World's coffee farmers seek to set minimum price to help poor farmers (WSJ)
• Amazon workers in Minnesota plan to strike on Prime Day over labor practices (Tech Crunch)
• Alibaba has claimed a new record in AI language understanding (MIT Technology Review)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Meet the woman behind Amazon's explosive growth (Fast Company)
• Agile is not enough (MIT Sloan Management Review)
• Mapping the US gastronomic borders (The Pudding)
• Jack Ma again endorses extreme overtime as furor rages on (Bloomberg)
• Oh we don't sell food at this restaurant, we purvey provisions (McSweeney's)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Meituan and Alibaba have reshaped food delivery in China (Bloomberg)
• Food Lion, other grocers will use AI for food suppliers (WSJ)
• Why self-checkout is and has always been the worst (Gizmodo)
• Are you ready to change your target customer (HBR)
• Can the world quench China's bottomless thirst for milk (The Guardian)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The real cost of cheap groceries (Fortune)
• Colgate Total toothpaste to relaunch without controversial chemical (Bloomberg)
• Walmart could leave CVS Caremark pharmacy networks amid dispute (WSJ)
• The Alibaba effect (Nikkei Asian Review)
• Sears won't close yet as its chariman, Edward Lampert, fends off creditors (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• What's really happening to retail (The Atlantic)
• Alibaba takes on Amazon in European cloud (WSJ)
• Sleep-tracking ring Oura surpasses $20 million in funding (Tech Crunch)
• Grocery stores are bars now (Vox)
• Eddie Lampert shattered Sears, sullied his reputation, and lost billions of dollars. Or did he (Institutional Investor)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Alibaba's on-demand online services unit valued at $30 billion (Reuters)
• P&G moves to streamline its structure (WSJ)
• Galen Weston tops CEO poll despite bad news at his companies (Financial Post)
• Coca-Cola proposes energy drinks in clash with Monster Beverage (Reuters)
• The curse of the Honeycrisp apple (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Everything you need to know about Daniel Zhang, Alibaba's new king (Wired)
• Walmart eyes Mexico grocery delivery with $225 million purchase (Bloomberg)
• Can Tesco's secret plan defeat Aldi and Lidl (The Guardian)
• Walmart expands test of its giant grocery vending machine (Food Dive)
• Management consulting's AI-powered existential crisis (MIT SMR)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The #1 office perk? Natural light (HBR)
• Alibaba's chairman, Jack Ma, plans to step down (NYT)
• Italy defied Starbucks, until it didn't (The Atlantic)
• Tackling the 1.6 billion-ton food loss and waste crisis (BCG)
• From lab to leader: How consumer companies can drive growth at scale with disruptive innovation (McKinsey)