Gitarcarver – if the smaller company cannot offer lower prices than the big company, yes they may go out of business – TO THE BENEFIT OF ALL CONSUMERS WHO NOW PAY LOWER PRICES FOR GOODS.

Likely with a widened selection of varieties and brands.

Price protection hurts consumers. It protects the cartel only, as noted by someone else above.

I live in Wisconsin, I was born here and have lived here my whole life (45 years).

This law is best known for being used to smack down small independent gas stations that try to use discount promotions to attract business away from the the branded stations.

That wouldn’t help much. It’s not like the people of Wisconsin are unaware of this law. It has been used for decades to smack small independent gas stations that try to run discount promotions.

And the agency that enforces this law doesn’t do much in the way of ad-hoc investigating. They sit back and wait for the violator’s competitors to file complaints.

But this seems to be a case where Mejier was not trying to dump products or lower prices to control the market, but rather just to get into the market.

The lower prices were for grand opening of stores in the highly competitive food store market. They were not long term prices.

Haven’t Wisconsin legislators ever hear of “loss leaders,” an item that is sold at a low price just to get people in the store?

I guess the legislators would rather make laws and remain ignorant rather than be informed and help businesses (and in the long run, consumers.)

It’s nice for the retailers when the Government helps them out, at the expense of the consumers, by enforcing a cartel price (above the free market price and lower than or equal to the monopoly price) for the supermarkets.

The bane of the cartel is the strong incentive for individual members to cheat on their sales. Here, the Wisconsin government, by its enforcement, ensures that the supermarket cartel prospers within its borders.

It’s painfully obvious that whatever agency is looking at this has too big a budget.