Discount retailer Target Corp. calls to mind many things. A porterhouse steak isn’t one of them.

But as the chain that brought the world a Michael Graves-designed fondue set plunges deeper into the food business, it is adopting an increasingly common tactic in the grocery industry: launching its own line of high-end beef.

Sutton & Dodge Steakhouse Quality Angus Beef, named after a fictitious butcher and an equally mythical restaurateur, hits SuperTarget stores this summer, with cuts ranging from rib-eye and T-bone to tenderloin and New York strip.

Sound strange? Food Lion LLC, the no-frills supermarket chain, just introduced a line of premium beef called Butcher’s Brand.

Moderately priced Safeway Inc. is finishing its rollout of Rancher’s Reserve, another all-Angus beef brand.

Even Wal-Mart Stores Inc., better known for cheap clothes than fine meats, is getting into the business, with a line of premium deli meats dubbed Prima Della for its supercenter stores.

Premium store-brand meats, once the territory of gourmet specialty stores, quickly are trickling down into mainstream supermarkets and big-box discount chains as retailers jostle to stand out in an increasingly crowded field of grocers.

The not-so-subtle strategy, retailers say, is to lure customers into their stores with high-end meats that cannot be found anywhere else and hope they stick around to do the rest of their food shopping.

Beef, said Safeway spokesman Greg TenEyck, is a “determining factor in selecting a supermarket and remaining loyal to it.”

Food industry analysts say the shift to premium meats reflects the steady evolution of store brands from their humble roots two decades ago as cheap alternatives to name-brand products into their emerging status as destination products in their own right.

Target has created Archer Farms and Market Pantry grocery products. Safeway has Safeway Select, plus Signature brand soups, salads and sandwiches.

“Supermarkets are now positioning these products to be as good as, or better than, national products,” said Karen Brown, a senior vice president of the Food Marketing Institute, a Washington-based trade group.