The business started shifting away from stocking streams to stocking store shelves in the 1970s, when Giant Food, a Landover, Md. grocery chain now owned by the Dutch group Royal Ahold, started buying its fillets.

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He said he'd rather work in the supermarket stocking shelves.

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Conversely, if inventories are building, store owners are more likely to wait for customers to clear the shelves before stocking up on new products.

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