Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Inside PepsiCo's battle to remake Gatorade for the Kennedy era (FT)
• New Lululemon CEO faces compounding pressures as she takes over top job (Globe and Mail)
• France champagne output set to halve on heat waves and drought (Bloomberg)
• The scourge of A.1 (The New Yorker)
• Inside John Lewis' secret turnaround plan (FT)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• It's the hottest brand of the summer - and it's popping up everywhere (WSJ)
• The next generation of drinkers is breaking up with bubbly booze (Bloomberg)
• France's sacred food culture faces existential crisis (Bloomberg)
• Schwartz's deli in Montreal opts for local black cherry soda as US tariffs bite (Globe and Mail)
• Starbucks refreshed its menu. Chai fans are losing their minds (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Celsius share slump as namesake brand sales tumble (Bloomberg)
• Monster Beverage sales rise on international growth (WSJ)
• Inside the long, AI-powered quest to perfect Pringle-making (WSJ)
• US alcohol industry rightly fears a nasty hangover from Trump's trade war with Canada (Globe and Mail)
• Burger King's new Whopper strikes a blow in fast food burger wars (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Costco gas pumps are so popular they are building standalone stations (WSJ)
• Kraft Heinz to tap Disney magic in effort to build brands (WSJ)
• Rewiring customer experience for the agentic era (McKinsey)
• Coffee drinkers turning to whole beans as prices soar, says Lavazza (FT)
• Diageo chair hunts for drinks 'heavyweights' in board revamp (FT)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• Tesco explores sale of European business (FT)
• Why Smucker's $5 billion bet on the Twinkie flopped (WSJ)
• Sven Smit: In an AI world, the fastest learner will win (McKinsey)
• Germans don't love Budweiser. It won't take no for an answer (NYT)
• From the archives (2012): The $1.6 billion flop. Tesco poised to exit the U.S. (WSJ)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: When less is more (Substack)
• South Africa's grocery war shifts from search to AI conversation (Bloomberg)
• Consumers shun mid-sized packs amid price squeeze, Nestle says (WSJ)
• Liquor stocks are priced for a Big Tobacco moment (WSJ)
• Ocado paves way for exit of CEO Tim Steiner after succession clash (FT)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• The pursuit of hungriness: 250 years of American food innovation (NYT)
• Nestle to change KitKat recipe in Europe to make it crispier (Bloomberg)
• California bans 'sell by' labels, hoping to cut food waste (NYT)
• What Big Food did to ice cream (Medium)
• Big brewers are making outsized bets on tiny cans of beer (WSJ)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Trump cuts to grocery subsidies bite US food companies (FT)
• Target reports largest sales gain in years (WSJ)
• Calls for 'no seed oil' push companies to order up on butter and beef tallow (NYT)
• UK Treasury pushes supermarkets to cap prices (FT)
• Celebrating 50 years of great American wines (NYT)

 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 Wednesday Picks

• A growth formula for the home and hygiene market (McKinsey)
• A $1,000 dog grooming session? The wellness industry is booming (NYT)
• The new food fad sweeping Korea (FT)
• Graza's new mayo is the latest buzzy condiment to launch (Fast Company)
• Liquor hasn't led to an explosion in alcohol sales, as some feared (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• The expensive decision Walmart's CEO made that changed everything (WSJ)
• Why is there a martini on every menu right now (Bloomberg)
• How food delivery is reshaping mealtime (NYT)
• How specialty retail is getting its groove back (BCG)
• From the archives (2019): Uber Eats opens up about the future of food delivery in Canada (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Ikea battles Amazon and Temu as market shifts bring pain (Bloomberg)
• America is falling out of love with pizza (WSJ)
• Claire's enters UK insolvency as Modella blames high street pain (Bloomberg)
• AB InBev buys back $3 billion stake in U.S. metal container facility to boost supply security(WSJ)
• Ford vows to ban Crown Royal from LCBO after plant shutdown (Globe and Mail)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• The Nordic diet can help you sleep better and live longer (National Geographic)
• How a good old-fashioned boycott got Canadians to trade Kentucky bourbon for Canadian whisky (CBC)
• Ocado ends exclusivity terms after setbacks to Kroger deal (Bloomberg)
• Fast fashion, delivery apps tap India's next billion customers (Bloomberg)
• From the archives (1993): Starbucks to taste New York at last (NYT)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• A $600 suckling pig? Wagyu for all? On menus, it's a new gilded age (NYT)
• Jim Beam halts production as whiskey market struggles (NYT)
• Instacart scraps all price tests after customer pushback (WSJ)
• What does Lululemon need: Discipline or inspiration (WSJ)
• Cocoa prices are plunging. Why is chocolate still so expensive (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• Molson Coors accuses former Canadian staff of 'complex' embezzlement scheme (Globe and Mail)
• Michelin honoured the cheesesteak. Not all Philadelphians cheered (NYT)
• Ontario grocers could avoid taking back wine and beer empties under new deal (CBC)
• Shaking up the British sugar tax (Bloomberg)
• Lululemon is having an identity crisis. Its founder blames its CEO (WSJ)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• What will it take to get retailers to kill the music (WSJ)
• Kroger to close delivery centers, take $2.6 billion hit (Bloomberg)
• Panera plans to spend millions on better sandwiches and better stores (WSJ)
• AB InBev nears $700 million deal for party punch maker BeatBox (WSJ)
• Jeff Bezos creates AI startup where he will be co-chief executive (NYT)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Revisiting my definition of strategy (Medium)
• Why America's fridges are overflowing with sauce (Bloomberg)
• GenAI gives retailers an edge over suppliers (BCG)
• Starbucks' roller coaster week of job costs and store closures (WSJ)
• Craft breweries struggle as sales and appetites wane (NYT)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Roger Martin: Strategic nihilism (Medium)
• The Kelce brothers' Garage Beer company is now worth $200 million (WSJ)
• Carlos Abrams-Rivera, the Kraft Heinz CEO dealing with America's lost appetite (FT)
• Amazon pares back free shipping perk on Prime membership (NYT)
• It's not just you: Household product scents are getting stronger (Bloomberg)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• M&A in consumer health has its own formula (BCG)
• Krispy Kreme bets on big box stores to stay fresh (NYT)
• Taco Bell's not so secret sauce: An endless stream of new stuff (Bloomberg)
• How pubs won Gen Z over (FT)
• From the archives (2015): Kraft, Heinz to merge, forming food giant (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Carlsberg falls after CEO warns of weak consumer spending (Bloomberg)
• Are samosa's unhealthy? Some Indians find official advice hard to swallow (NYT)
• There's money to be made from 'MAHA'. Food companies want in (NYT)
• Canola industry asks Ottawa to curtail vegetable oil imports after China imposes new trade restrictions (Globe and Mail)
• Amazon has tried to crack Walmart's grocery empire for decades, with limited success. A massive same-day grocery expansion could change that (Fortune)