Japanese sweet corn

On several stretches of Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City, you'd see vendors selling corn on the cob, both raw and cooked. They chose areas where there are no business establishments and just set up on the sidewalk. Cars stop beside them on the street—with no regard for other drivers inconvenienced by their doing so—and buy a kilo or two. In some stretches, these vendors were only about ten meters apart. This particular one was lucky, because the one before her was 300 meters away and the next one was 50 meters away. I could never understand how they actually made money, being so close to each other and having so much competition. I won't be able to ask them now—I just found out today that the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, which has jurisdiction over the metro's national highways, has removed all of the corn vendors, improving the flow of traffic. I'm also happy for pedestrians, who had been forced to step onto the road because the vendors were hogging the sidewalk. But I can't help but feel bad for the vendors, most of whom are very poor. I really hope they find themselves a better place to sell their sweet corn.