The legislature of the state of Minnesota hereby finds: that the trade practices defined and prohibited by sections 325D.09 to 325D.16 are detrimental to labor, destructive to employment, and injurious to the best interests of workers; that they mislead consumers into believing that they are buying merchandise at prices substantially below regular retail prices, when in fact they are not; that they mislead consumers as to the quality, ingredients and origin of merchandise purchased; that they deprive consumers of various customer services offered by regularly established and bona fide retail outlets without compensating advantage to consumers; and that they constitute unfair and fraudulent competition and unsound and uneconomic methods of distribution. The legislature, acting in the exercise of the police power of the state, declares that the public policy of the state requires, and that the general welfare of the state will be benefited by, the suppression of the trade practices hereinafter defined.