Another cash-constrained dot.com, Peapod, an online grocer, last month sold a 51% stake to Royal Ahold, an offline grocer.

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Competing against the domestic giants--Safeway, Albertsons, Kroger and Wal-Mart in some markets--Royal Ahold has amassed a No. 1 market share along America's eastern seaboard.

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It also points to its work for U.S. Foodservice, helping the unit of the disgraced Dutch grocery chain Royal Ahold overcome its accounting and legal headaches.

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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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Peapod, a subsidiary of Royal Ahold and another major grocery delivery service that reaches New England and the mid-Atlantic as well as Chicago, Milwaukee and Indianapolis, charges similar rates (with a small fuel surcharge) in addition to its free pickup.

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