Snap Inc. had a pretty abysmal past few months, reporting today that its fiscal third quarter 2017 earnings came in under Wall Street expectations. The news sent its stock plummeting nearly 20 percent. Packaged in its statement was a tiny nugget of news regarding the company’s Spectacles, the camera-equipped sunglasses it sells both online and in pop-up vending machines around the world. Snap says it lost nearly $40 million on the device, “primarily related to excess inventory reserves and inventory purchase commitment cancellation charges.”

In other words, customers simply didn’t buy as many units as Snap thought they would, while a significant number of customers who did purchase the glasses ended up returning them. This detail…

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