An article in the New York Times (Sept 14, 2011) describes the Target specific Missoni line offered at Target for a fraction of the price that it  regular line is sold at Bergdorf Goodman ($ 40 vs $ 12,000).   The surge in demand crashed the site and items sold out in minutes.  Can a retailer unprepared for such demand now suffer a cost associated with poor service ? Does the disruption of the multichannel availability – website, phone line and physical store – suggest the logic of restricting the launch to one channel only ? Is it reasonable for Target to claim that it could not plan for such a demand or should be considered a bait and switch marketing ploy that may drum up consumer interest ?