As marketers try to keep up with evolving customer tastes, one of the most dangerous things they can do is accept the categories set up by their competitors. Who says there’s no middle market for groceries?

Inside Bay Area: Safeway turns to ‘lifestyle centers’ by Matthew Bunk (via Extra Texture)

Safeway Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Burd, who in several recent skirmishes with labor unions earned a reputation for not backing down, decided to push back against well-positioned competitors. He plans to dominate the middle ground of the grocery battlefield and chip away at either side.

After experimenting with a few different concepts in key U.S. markets, Safeway shifted its persona upward and began a multibillion dollar quest to convert its stores to lifestyle centers, equipped with larger delis, an expanded selection of perishable foods, organic products integrated with the non-organic, softer lighting and a larger wine selection.

The entire atmosphere of thenew store tilts to an upscale taste, down to more elegant signs numbering the aisles to a non-skid tile floor in the produce section that looks like planks of woods.