Stephan's Monday Picks

• How chicken conquered the world (FT)
• Dollar chains give diverging view on pressured retail sector (Bloomberg)
• How Celsius became the king of normie energy drinks (Bloomberg)
• How wagyu, Japan's prized beef, took over America (WSJ)
• Gap is back. Investors are starting to believe (WSJ)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Coca-Cola raises guidance, buoyed by World Cup lift (Bloomberg)
• From plans to bets: Strategy in the age of prediction (Bain)
• Magnum boosted by heatwave as sales surge in Europe (FT)
• Vinted wants to bring its Depop-style disruption to the US (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2015): The aging of Abercrombie & Fitch (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Bank of Canada warns of low-hire, low-fire job market that complicates rate decisions (Globe and Mail)
• It's such a mess shopping for reasonably priced menswear (Bloomberg)
• Lidl overtakes Morrisons to become fifth largest supermarket in UK (The Guardian)
• Americans are about to pay even more at the grocery store (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (2014): A dozen things I've learned from Jim Sinegal (25iq)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• What I learned about billionaires at Jeff Bezos' private retreat (The Atlantic)
• The Japanese designers changing menswear (NYT)
• How the Walkman, Game Boy, Liquid Death, and Pokemon became surprise hits (HBR)
• Why do the top sushi restaurants leave us so bored, and so broke (NYT)
• From the archives (2025): The great French Fry mystery (Toronto Life)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• EQ Bank to buy PC Financial from Loblaw for $800 million (Globe and Mail)
• Thomson, Weston families win bid for Hudson's Bay charter (Globe and Mail)
• You're on Ozempic? How quaint (The Atlantic)
• Ozempic is changing the way we spend money on time, and the way we eat (Washington Post)
• From the archives (2002): Thomson legacy likely to endure (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• The State of Fashion 2026 (McKinsey)
• The AI-first retailer (BCG)
• The quiet kingmaker slipping beauty brands into your hotel shower (Bloomberg)
• New York's bodegas are here to stay (NYT)
• From the archives (2014): Mike Duke leaves Walmart bigger, growing slowly (WSJ)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• For Uniqlo's founder, conquering America is personal (NYT)
• The matcha market cracks under pressure (NYT)
• Soon you'll be able to shop Walmart on ChatGPT. Here's why it matters (WSJ)
• Canadian Tire reports breach of e-commerce database involving customer info (Globe and Mail)
• Protein is showing up in Doritos, Waffles, and now even Pop Tarts (Bloomberg) 

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Woolworths, Coles face $511 million hit after underpaying staff (Bloomberg)
• Patagonia changed the apparel business. Can it change food too (NYT)
• PepsiCo CEO's tall order: Win over investor calling for strategy reset (WSJ)
• New 'Got Milk' campaign tries to build on dairy milk comeback (WSJ)
• Walmart to open shops in in South Africa in push to win locals (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Why gloomy consumers keep spending (BCG)
• AB Foods to buy rival Hovis in UK bread combination (Bloomberg)
• The revenge of millennial cringe (The New Yorker)
• Spinning textile waste into value (BCG)
• How product operating model is transforming consumer product companies (Bain)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Ralph Lauren's vintage man of mystery (NYT)
• Weston family to buy the Hudson's Bay charter to donate to museum in $12.5 million deal (Globe and Mail)
• Starbucks abandons mobile order, pickup-only stores (WSJ)
• When NASA got caught up in the cola wars (NYT)
• From the archive (2017): This secretive billionaire makes the cheese for Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Papa John's (Forbes)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• H&M billionaire quietly moves brand towards private ownership (Bloomberg)
• Walmart goes big with drone delivery expansion (Wired)
• Hudson's Bay stores close in Canada (NYT)
• When they stop selling your favourite thing (NYT)
• How a hazelnut spread became a sticking point in Franco-Algerian relations (The New Yorker)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Richard Baker's mastery of real estate deals wasn't enough to save Hudson's Bay (Globe and Mail)
• Danish grocery stores have a new trick for boycotting U.S. products (Fast Company)
• Forever 21 operator files for bankruptcy (NYT)
• Hudson's Bay's demise marks the death of the traditional department store in Canada (CBC)
• A genocidal militia in Sudan controls a key ingredient in Coke and Pepsi (Bloomberg)

 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

• Why online returns are a hassle now (The Atlantic)
• Party City to close all stores by February, company says (NYT)
• What consumers want from personalization (BCG)
• H&M's comeback plan: Try to be cooler (WSJ)
• Canadian Tire tightens recruiting roles for temporary foreign workers (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Leaders shouldn't try to do it all (HBR)
• Walgreens is in talks to sell itself to private equity firm Sycamore Partners (WSJ)
• Why is it so hard for clothing resale platforms to make money (Bloomberg)
• Albertsons sues Kroger, terminates merger after judge blocks supermarket megadeal (WSJ)
• Bank of Canada cuts rate by half point, signals 'more gradual' approach to further easing (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Ozempic killed diet and exercise (The Atlantic)
• How an app selling second-hand clothes went from near collapse to worth $5 billion (WSJ)
• The state of grocery retail in Latin America (McKinsey)
• Kroger-Albertsons merger blocked by the courts (WSJ)
• Trump won't be able to save the struggling US beef industry (Bloomberg)

 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 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)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Food influencers are eating old school critics for lunch (Globe and Mail)
• Putting olive oil in a squeeze bottle earned this company a cult following (Bloomberg)
• Uber's next act: Taking on Amazon (FT)
• First came the $100 wide-leg jean. Then the $700 shopping spree (Bloomberg)
• Couche-Tard's Alain Bouchard: "Pathological entrepreneur" swooping on 7-Eleven (FT)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Ozempic is changing the way people eat. Snack companies are paying close attention (CBC)
• Windsor has a problem: Not enough tech workers to work on their farms (Globe and Mail)
• Your old clothes are worth billions (WSJ)
• Want an iced coffee. Brands want you to make your own (WSJ)
• From the archives (2022): What we write about when we write about food (NYT)