Best of Pax Westona: October 2018

• What can save the struggling Marks & Spencer (NYT)
• Self checkout is terrible: Why Walmart, Target, and others still do it (Vox)
• To see where retail stores are heading, look to China (BCG)
• Target's answer to discounters is even cheaper store brand (WSJ)
• Sears, the original everything store, files for bankruptcy (NYT)
• Food companies seek to boot their dated brands (Bloomberg)
• Inside the $2.6B subscription wars (Fast Company)
• Amazon's quest to win in India (Bloomberg)
• Haste makes waste (The Collaborative Fund)
• How one man built The Sharper Image into the world's wackiest gadget store (The Hustle)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Best Halloween candy, ranked (The Cut)
• Grocers enlist robots to chase e-commerce (WSJ)
• Higher wages aren't enough to turn mediocre jobs into good ones (HBR)
• Third Point wants Campbell Soup to explore a split (WSJ)
• How one man built The Sharper Imagine into the world's wackiest gadget store (The Hustle)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The case for Kellogg, Campbell Soup, and other legacy companies to go private (CNBC)
• Why is CBD everywhere (NYT)
• Asda says 2,500 jobs are at risk before Sainsbury's merger (The Guardian)
• The dream of virtual reality is dying (The Outline)
• How did athleisure take over American fashion (The Atlantic)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Why is chardonnay still America's best selling wine (New York Magazine)
• Walmart looks to radical supercenter reinvention (Winsight Grocery Business)
• In Amazon we trust, but why (Vox)
• Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world (Curbed)
• A lollipop made for looking, not licking (NYT)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Uber's secret restaurant empire (Bloomberg)
• In Japan, the Kit Kat isn't just a chocolate, it's an obsession (NYT)
• Investors are pouring money into food delivery companies (WSJ)
• India's Paytm, Flipkart, Myntra haven't figured out AI, big data (Quartz)
• From the archives (2004): Longo's to acquire Grocery Gateway (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Dunkin' takes shot at Starbucks with less expensive espresso (WSJ)
• They said Seattle's higher base pay would hurt workers. Why did they flip (NYT)
• A counter-intuitive way to keep shelves stocked and prices down (Kellogg Insight)
• Costco builds Nebraska supply chain for its $5 rotisserie chickens (NPR)
• How a tiny tea company is poised to become one of Coca-Cola's next $1B brands (Food Dive)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The retail apocalypse can't keep Tractor Supply Co. down (Bloomberg)
• How Best Buy survived the retail apocalypse (The Week)
• K-beauty: The rise of Korean makeup in the West (BBC)
• How fish and chips migrated to Great Britain (Gastro Obscura)
• Target undercuts Amazon with free two-day shipping (WSJ)