By Week 12, it's clear. This new demand for Lover's Beer is a far more major change than you
expected. You sigh with resignation when you think of how much money you could make if you
only had enough in stock. How could the brewery have done this to you? Why did demand have
to rise so quickly? How are you ever expected to keep up? All you know is that you're never going
to get caught in this situation again. You order sixty more truckloads.
For the next four weeks, the demand continues to outstrip your supply. In fact, you can't
reduce your backlog at all in Week 13.
You finally start receiving larger shipments from the brewery in Weeks 14 and 15. At the
same time, orders from your stores drop off a bit. Maybe in the previous weeks, you figure,
they overordered a bit. At this point, anything that helps work off your backlog is a welcome
reprieve.
And now, in Week 16, you finally get almost all the beer you asked for weeks ago: fiftyfive
truckloads. It arrives early in the week, and you stroll back to that section of the
warehouse to take a look at it, stacked on pallets. It's as much beer as you keep for
any major brand. And it will be moving out soon.
Throughout the week, you wait expectantly for the stores' orders to roll in. You even
stop by the intake desk to see the individual forms. But on form after form, you see the
same number written: zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero. What's wrong with these people?
Four weeks ago, they were screaming at you for the beer, now, they don't even want any.
Suddenly, you feel a chill. Just as your trucker leaves for the run that includes the
brewery, you catch up with him. You initial the form, and cross out the twenty-four
truckloads you had ordered, replacing it with a zero of your own.
Week 17: The next week, sixty more truckloads of Lover's Beer arrive. The stores still
ask for—zero. You still ask for—zero. One hundred and nine truckloads of the stuff
sit in your warehouse. You could bathe in the stuff every day, and it wouldn't make
a den