Marsh Supermarkets Inc. on Thursday said it is lowering its prices on thousands of its most popular items—and will keep them down for at least three months.

The company said the so-called Good ’Til pricing strategy will protect consumers from price hikes on key grocery items, even if industry retail prices rise, as they have for four straight quarters.

“In these inflationary times, rising food prices can contribute to the economic pressures faced by many families in our communities,” said Joe Kelley, Marsh Supermarkets’ CEO.

The new pricing program will be offered four times per year, each time for about three months. For example, the lower prices for the current period will stay in place until the end of 2011.

Marsh said it is the first grocery to roll out Good ’Til pricing in Indiana. The approach has been used by grocery chains in the northeastern United States for some time. One of the chains adopting the strategy was New York-based Price Chopper, where Kelley was an executive vice president before joining Marsh in May.

Fishers-based Marsh operates 70 Marsh stores as well as 27 smaller MainStreet Markets.

IBJ reported in September that the chain is shifting into expansion mode, with a plan to spend $60 million to build up to 10 new stores and remodel or rebuild several more over the next three years.