Mar 21, 2008 4:11 PM, by MARK HAMSTRA

In a fourth-quarter earnings conference call with investors, Steve Burd, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Safeway, Pleasanton, Calif., said consumers have become “more cautious.”

“I think some of that caution stems from the fact that they are a little bit concerned about the economy,” he said. “Everybody is forecasting some kind of recession, and then we have an unusual situation where you add to that the uncertainty of more inflation than consumers have seen in some time. We see some evidence of consumers trading down.”

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