The first ones to ask

Early buyers move markets far more than their numbers suggest.

When a few people in Port Said start asking for knitted socks made in a workshop down the road, instead of the imported ones, the effect of their own purchase is tiny. Twenty pairs. Nobody's economy turns on twenty pairs.

But the shopkeeper notices. He orders more from the workshop and gives them a better spot. The workshop takes on another pair of hands. A neighbour sees them on the shelf, tries a pair, and the habit reaches people who would never have gone looking.

That is how most changes in what gets made begin. Not with a law or a giant, but with a small group willing to choose something before it is the obvious choice, and a seller paying attention to what they chose. Once makers see that a group likes to go first, they put time and money into making the new thing better, and better makes it easier for everyone else to follow.

It runs in reverse as well. Every time we reward the seller who shouts loudest, or drop a maker we trusted for a small saving, or buy from the pushy caller because it was easier than saying no, someone is counting. They build more of whatever we paid for.

Most of us cannot move a market on our own. All of us can move the few people around us, and the shopkeeper who watches what they buy.

What gets made next is decided, a little, at every counter.