Marketing Channels 8th Edition by Bert Rosenbloom

Exercise 1

Barnes Noble introduced its electronic book reader, the Nook, in mid-October 2009. Within days it became Barnes Noble's fastest selling product. In fact, sales were so good that Barnes Noble announced in mid-November that customers ordering the Nook would not receive it until the first week of January at the earliest. So, a huge number of customers looking forward to receiving or giving the Nook for Christmas would be disappointed. Barnes Noble's explanation for the shortfall was that it had underestimated demand and could not ramp up production in time to meet holiday demand.
Is Barnes Noble's failure to have a sufficient inventory of Nooks to meet demand a supply chain problem? Why or why not? Discuss.