If you are getting your Thanksgiving turkey from Walmart or some other “supercenter” store, our condolences.

On the other hand, it you are getting your turkey from a neighborhood store where you know the folks behind the counter and where the turkey comes from a farm in the region, our compliments.

There’s a lot of talk about shopping locally these days, but some of us have been shopping locally for decades.

In Wisconsin our local grocery stores have survived the onslaught of the out-of-state chains and megastores by providing quality service and quality food. But even that might not have been enough to offset the food dumping of the big chains, designed to run smaller, locally owned competitors out of business. Wisconsin has since the 1930s maintained a minimum markup law, which dictates that stores cannot sell food products for less than cost. A federal judge declared the minimum markup law unconstitutional, but that ruling is being appealed.

Without this law, stores such as Walmart would sell turkeys for less than cost, drawing in customers who would then be sold all the fixings for a lot more than cost. In the end, consumers drawn in by loss-leader big-ticket items end up paying more. But the gimmick draws customers away from smaller, locally owned stores and ultimately undermines competition.

The minimum markup law for food -- like the minimum markup law for gasoline and other products -- prevents out of state chains from establishing monopolies and ensures that consumers will have choices and be protected from the profiteering that occurs when those choices disappear.

So shop locally. Enjoy your fresh turkey from a farm in Dane County or nearby. And say a little thanks for Wisconsin’s visionary minimum markup law and the other policies that protect locally owned stores and Wisconsin consumers.

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