Though these aren't the same products, there's a similar situation going on with Starbucks. The new refreshers in the instant "VIA" form are selling like hotcakes. We can't keep them on the shelves for more than one day and for the past two weeks: the warehouse has been sold out! Starbucks did not anticipate such a frenzy over them (and yes, I do receive a handful of "what?! You're out?!! When will they be back?!") right now we're not meeting the demand that was four times greater than expected, according to sales. Ok, so at least we know there's less of a chance that these are popping up on eBay, but still an example of how a company CAN mistakenly project how much of one item to manufacture and it's not enough. Business models can predict due to what's gone on in the past, but they're not perfect and they can't see into the future, they can only guesstimate based on trends (which aren't perfect, either). Let's just say that while MAC did anticipate each shade by vote, they did not expect that so many people would order so many at a time (scalpers aside). IF MAC produced one billion of these, I'm sure that given the "limited edition" nature of the product, it would still sell out and there would still be those without it. How many of us thought, "maybe I'll get another backup..." when the Add to Cart link was still available?
