Store assessments are visits to retail tobacco stores to document and collect data on what tobacco products are being sold and how they are being marketed and promoted in your community. In this episode, learn both why and how to conduct them, as well as how the data you collect can be used. 

Listen below or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or LibSyn.

Read a transcript of the episode.

Store Assessment Resources and Case Studies:

• Store Assessment Tools, CounterTobacco.org
  • STARS
  • fSTARS
    • Summary report: Surveying How the Tobacco Industry Markets Flavors in Five Midwestern Cities 
    • Full report and fSTARS form: Retail Store Assessments for Flavored Tobacco Products: Pilots in Tobacco Nation 
  • vSTARS
    • vSTARS was used to complete a statewide census of vape shops in the state of New Hampshire. They were able to assess product availability, price promotions, product messaging, as well as see how vape shops distinguish themselves from conventional tobacco retailers. 
    • Kong AY, Eaddy JL, Morrison SL, Asbury D, Lindell KM, Ribisl KM. Using the Vape Shop Standardized Tobacco Assessment for Retail Settings (V-STARS) to Assess Product Availability, Price Promotions, and Messaging in New Hampshire Vape Shop Retailers. Tob Regul Sci. 2017;3(2):174-182. doi:10.18001/TRS.3.2.
  • Video: Conducting Store Observations for Tobacco Control
  • Video: Using Store Observations for Point of Sale Tobacco Control Policy Change
• Feld AL, Johnson TO, Byerly KW, Ribisl KM. How to Conduct Store Observations of Tobacco Marketing and Products. Prev Chronic Dis 2016;13:150504. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.150504external icon.
• Combs, T. B., Brosi, D., Chaitan, V. L., He, E., Luke, D. A., & Henriksen, L. (2019). Local retail tobacco environment regulation: Early adoption in the United States. Tobacco Regulatory Science, 5(1), 76-86. https://doi.org/10.18001/TRS.5.1.7
• Assessing Retail Environments with STARS: Standardized Tobacco Assessment for Retail Settings, Center for Public Health Systems Science
• Addressing Tobacco-Related Health Inequities: Resources to Inform Point-of-Sale Policies, ChangeLab Solutions
• Assessing and Improving the Landscape of Food and Alcohol Products in Stores – A Wisconsin Success Story, Counter Tools
• Healthy Stores for a Healthy Community 
• Vermont Tobacco Control 2014 Counter Tools Store Audit Report, Vermont Department of Health, Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
• Point-of-Sale Scavenger Hunt, CounterTobacco.org

Other research and resources cited:

• Henriksen L, Schleicher NC, Johnson TO, Roeseler A, Zhu S-H. Retail Tobacco Marketing in Rural Versus Nonrural Counties: Product Availability, Discounts, and Prices. Health Promotion Practice. 2020;21(1_suppl):27S-36S. doi:10.1177/1524839919888652
• Keller-Hamilton B, Ferketich AK, Berman M, Conrad E, Roberts ME. Cigarette Prices in Rural and Urban Ohio: Effects of Census Tract Demographics. Health Promotion Practice. 2020;21(1_suppl):37S-43S. doi:10.1177/1524839919881141
• Kong AY, Queen TL, Golden SD, Ribisl KM. Neighborhood Disparities in the Availability, Advertising, Promotion, and Youth Appeal of Little Cigars and Cigarillos, United States, 2015, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Volume 22, Issue 12, December 2020, Pages 2170–2177, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntaa005
• Mills SD, Golden SD, Henriksen L, Kong AY, Queen TL, Ribisl KM. Neighbourhood disparities in the price of the cheapest cigarettes in the USA. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2019;73(9):894-896. doi:10.1136/jech-2018-210998
• Ribisl KM, D’Angelo H, Feld AL, et al. Disparities in tobacco marketing and product availability at the point of sale: Results of a national study. Prev Med. 2017;105:381-388. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.04.010
• Tobacco Company Marketing to African Americans, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids