This whole investing game is quite easy and predictable.

A hot new company goes public, attracts investors and its stock goes through the roof. Everyone wants all-in until the price reaches an unsustainable level, and then the selling begins.

Eventually either the hot company crashes and burns, or recovers to provide more rational returns in the future.

Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFMI) is a great example of this evolution.

Five years ago, this alternative grocery store was all the rage. The stock appreciated as investors believed that shoppers would be more than willing to part with more dollars in order to get food that was naturally raised without chemicals and pesticides.

It doesn't take a genius to project that earnings reports will reflect slow retail sales activity in the last quarter of 2008.

In fact, reports in the last few days have, for the most part, reflected lower results than had been projected by the companies and the analysts following them.

The first read of the third-quarter results for Supervalu (NYSE: SVU) appeared to confirm that the company was performing consistent with the trends. SVU reported a loss of $13.95 per share, mostly resulting from a $3.3 billion charge for the writedown of goodwill and other intangible assets.

The reality is, however, that Supervalu is performing better than many of their competitors, such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), which reported sales and earnings well below expectations.

In its report to investors, SVU lowered its guidance for the full fiscal 2009 year to reflect the impact of higher commodity prices and cautious consumer spending.

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and watch out for more Battle of the Brands posts.

There exists, somewhere between the fearsome mass-ness of the mainstream grocery store and the high-pitched good works of the coop, farmer's market, or CSA, a world in which low prices are valued slightly higher than locality of the source but, more than anything, the products must be good. Fair-trade, organic, without trans-fatty acids, with fewer artificial colorings or preservatives or Disney characters than all the other products.

It's the world of the natural foods market. A world dominated by two very dissimilar and yet, from a target market perspective, nearly identical competitors: Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) and Trader Joe's, a unit of German private company Aldi Group.

Walking into a store -- or simply gazing at one from across the street -- you have a very different picture. On one corner, in the midst of a posh shopping area or trendy boutique-spattered neighborhood, Whole Foods, with its glistening crates of fresh produce, honeydew melons, purple potatoes, and blood oranges piled high in an abundance of exoticism. The doors open smoothly, the merchandise is displayed beautifully, and a high-ceilinged eating area is often overflowing with customers enjoying their deli purchases. Customers enter slowly, looking around as if discovering a stunning architectural landmark for the first time.

Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ:WFMI) announced on Wednesday February 21, 2007, that it intends to purchase rival organic and natural food supermarket Wild Oats -- based in Boulder, Colorado. The entire transcript of the announcement is available at the company's website (www.wholefoodsmarket.com).

Agreed, the natural and organic foods market is growing as more and more people become concerned about the harmful chemicals and lack of inspection mechanisms in our food chain. Also agreed, that Whole Foods is currently enjoying an increase in both sales and revenue. According to information released by the company as part of its 1Q 2007 earnings report, sales increased 12% to $1.9 billion. Whole Foods currently has 174 stores, the vast majority in the U.S. Average weekly store sales were up 6% to $620,000. Average number of weekly transactions increased 5% to 3.2 million. The average ticket size was up 2% to $34.43. For a full rundown on the facts and figures see the 1Q 2007 press release.

Given all the good financial news plus Whole Foods' intention to purchase Wild Oats for $565 million, investors pushed the stock up on Thursday February 22, 2007, 13.2%. Shares closed up $6.04 at $51.74. Enjoy that brief ride. S&P put Whole Foods on credit watch and may adjust the company's BBB-debt rating even lower to below investment quality unless Whole Foods can finance the purchase of Wild Oats without taking on $106 million in additional debt.

I'm a libraphile (is that the word?) and I began filling my children's shelves with books years before I had even purchased my first pregnancy test. By far my favorite image in any book is the overleaf of Blueberries for Sal, a bucolic and all-blue illustration of Sal and her mother. They are canning blueberries in a 40s-era kitchen, complete with hand-cranked egg beater, polka-dot curtains, and a cast-iron wood cooking stove. Every time I gaze at that picture I believe for a second that I will go downstairs and preserve something in one of the old-fashioned Ball jars I found at a garage sale.

Alas, it never quite happens that way, but just reading the book makes me feel connected to the farm-wife ideal. Much like a wander through today's grocery store aisles. As Kim Severson mentions in today's New York Times, she feels smug when she puts a bag of Cascadian Farm organic French fries in her grocery cart (she calls is "greenwashing" and the marketers call it "an authentic narrative"): "a gentle image of a field or a farm ... suggest[s] an ample harvest gathered by an honest, hard-working family." And in creating these images for us, in selling us the hard-working farm family, marketers know that just for a minute we've left our wired, fossil-fuel-guzzling lives for a hand-hewn pine kitchen table in that log house in Maine.

In short, we're being sold our ideal lifestyle in a box, bag or can.