Food stamps are pumping up revenue at retailers across the country. Costco (COST), Wal-Mart (WMT) and others are seeing rushes an hour before funds are credited to electronic benefits transfer cards. Wal-Mart's CFO, Tom Schoewe, has noted the trend, telling Reuters, "Once the clock strikes midnight [on the last day of the month] and EBT cards are charged, you can see our results start to tick up."

Spending via EBT is not only increasing, it generally happens quickly. JPMorgan (JPM), which runs EBT programs for more than 20 states, reports that buyers run through 85% of food stamp funds within the first three days of their availability.

On Tuesday, Kroger (KR) reported third-quarter earnings -- and missed the Street's estimate.

The grocer announced that it lost $1.35 per share during the quarter, down sharply from a 36-cent profit during the same quarter a year ago. Taking one-time costs out of the equation, the grocer earned 27 cents per share during the quarter. These results were far short of the Street's expected 36 cents per share.

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.

Although computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is mainly known in the consumer business for its desktop and laptop PCs, as well as printers, the company has large software, services, and industrial product offerings as well. One of the most intriguing I've seen that may be in HP's possible future pipeline involves the reinvention of the grocery shopping experience. Say what?

The tech giant may be trialing a grocery shopping solution soon that involves an in-store kiosk system that literally could give customers the best shopping experience in a grocery store as possible, while really targeting coupons and special offers specifically to each shopper. Just like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) does with its targeted internet-based text grocery shopping, HP's system could get rid of the "coupon clipping" mentality many shoppers face and present each shopper with a personalized list of products with customized "couponing" that would allow for savings on the grocery items that matter most while getting rid of the generic "one size fits all" grocery coupon industry that works now, but probably wastefully and inefficiently compared to a personalized program.

This is hugely significant, since it is yet another way that tech companies can get into the field of complete and personalized shopping experiences that target each consumer directly. As Google has no doubt proven, this methodology converts browsers into buyers and really makes the conversion rate and attach rate of purchases something that every retailer (food or otherwise) should be chasing down at ferocious speed. Soon, the days of generic shopping and non-targeted marketing will be retired and will be replaced by directed and targeted advertising and marketing for each individual consumer. If HP has its way here, the company could be at the forefront of such efforts.