Best of Pax Westona: December 2019

• A Montreal bagel war unites rival kings (NYT)
• Long-awaited Cosmic Crisp apples to hit shelves (The Spokesman Review)
• Canada's food price report (Dalhousie University)
• Free shipping isn't really free (The Atlantic)
• Every Instant Pot user should be cooking with dried beans (Eater)
• The volatile economics of natural vanilla in Madagascar (Bloomberg)
• What have we done to lunch (City Lab)
• How 'direct-to-consumer' blew up retail (BoF)
• How L.O.L dolls became the dopamine hit of a generation (NYT)
• Walmart's secret weapon to fight off Amazon: The supercenter (WSJ)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The town that lost its Walmart (NYT)
• When Jacques Pepin made all the world an omelette (Taste)
• Sparkling wine sales lose fizz in UK as tastes change (FT)
• How Instagram changed the way we shop (Bloomberg)
• Consumer staples may come undone after 2019 rally (WSJ)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Supermarkets pick fruits, vegetables for healthy growth (WSJ)
• Italy is in a hazelnut cream-filled civil war (NYT)
• The great makeup crash of 2019 (BoF)
• Cabbage will be on menus everywhere in 2020 (Eater)
• The homespun joy of Coca-Cola chicken wings (Taste)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• 'Amazon's Choice' isn't the endorsement it appears (WSJ)
• Hard times for a hot commodity, the hot chile of New Mexico (NYT)
• For Uber and Amazon, 2020 offers promising food delivery acquisitions (Bloomberg)
• HelloFresh grabs a bigger slice of shrinking meal kit business (WSJ)
• From the archives (2007): Sobeys buys Thrifty, gains foothold in B.C. (Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• How L.O.L dolls became the dopamine hit of a generation (NYT)
• Walmart's secret weapon to fight off Amazon: The supercenter (WSJ)
• The forgotten glories of department stores (The Atlantic)
• Everything that top chefs and bartenders hated in 2019 (Bloomberg)
• Self-checkout and the ethical test of the cashier free line (CBC)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• How Amazon squeezes the businesses behind its store (NYT)
• Amazon's van-buying spree delivers a gift to auto industry (Bloomberg)
• IKEA 2.0 (The Verge)
• How Amazon changed America's malls in the 2010's (CNBC)
• Who made your clothes (NYT)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• 2019 Person of the Year: Brian Cornell (Twin Cities Business)
• How 'direct-to-consumer' blew up retail (BoF)
• Is our misguided affair with agility putting speed ahead of good work (Quartz)
• Why Illinois will rule the meatless future (Chicago Mag)
• From the archives (2012): How Dollarama turns pocket change into billions (Globe and Mail)