By Jessie Shor
My introductory economics class last semester taught me that when there exists demand, firms will enter the market to supply it. At today’s student marches, that market consisted of the disgruntled students (and sometimes supportive grandparents), who flooded the streets in protest of the high costs of tertiary education, low quality of primary schools, and pervasive economic inequality. The firms were lone vendors, walking alongside the 50,000 strong crowd. The goods? Everything from whistles to hamburgers to lemons to fend off the effects of tear gas. One snack vendor said his sales were significantly higher at protests than on an average morning. Another salesman, peddling Guy Fawkes masks, claimed that he sold an average of 100 masks at each protest, for 1000 CP ($2 US) each. Below are some pictures of these sellers and their wares.
