Something to think about:

During the pandemic, especially at the start, medical and safety masks were difficult to find in any retailer store or online site. Some retailers were price gouging until the Ford government, for Ontario, put an end to that.

While the mask mandate in Ontario has been lifted, we are seeing another virus surge and many people are still choosing to wear masks. We see cloth masks being sold by a wide range of retailers with a variety of images, designs, insignias, and logos. I was in a Northern Ontario Art Gallery and even they were selling masks.

Food for thought: With all of these masks being sold by such a wide variety of retailers, would you say masks are within a perfectly competitive market? OR do you think producers can differentiate their masks from the perspective of the consumer, and therefore have some control over price as in a monopolistic competitive market structure? Also, do you think PPE safety items have an elastic or inelastic price?