Wisconsin resident are paying a bit more for some holiday staples this year thanks to the state’s decades-old protections for mom and pop gas stations.

Will Flanders with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty said the state’s minimum mark-up law makes Thanksgiving more expensive.

“Minimum markup in Wisconsin raises the prices of numerous products from gasoline to medicine. It is particularly painful at Thanksgiving when families are unable to take advantage of some of the deep discounts on important staples like the Thanksgiving turkey,” Flanders told The Center Square. “Companies are forced to either adhere to the law or face complaints from competitors who benefit from what is essentially a price-controlling cartel on consumer goods.”

Minimum mark-up is a depression-era law that was first enacted to stop out of state gas companies from undercutting Wisconsin gas station owners. It required gas station owners to charge cost, plus an additional mark-up of 6% over what the station paid, or 9.18% over the average wholesale price of the fuel, whichever was higher.