Learning Objectives: Identify physical environment characteristics that make a retail outlet tobacco friendly and determine levels of pervasiveness of industry marketing strategies, identify shifts in industry marketing strategies over a three-year period, and provide real life examples of what we’re seeing in stores when it comes to measures of what we call “tobacco friendliness”.
Abstract: Research shows that the point-of-purchase environment is becoming an important outlet for tobacco industry marketing strategies. This presentation will focus what observable things we can study to determine the level of tobacco friendliness in retail stores by providing a thumbnail sketch of tobacco retail outlet observations over a three-year period to determine: 1) trends in tobacco retail marketing practices and 2) variations in overall level of “tobacco friendliness” by store type. Data was obtained from community data collection in Spring and Summer of 1999, 2000 and 2001. Selection of communities was determined by the location of separate nationally representative school samples of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students. For each index school, a catchment area, or community, was then defined, reflecting the area from which the school draws the majority of its students. A list of all likely tobacco retailers located within the specified census blocks was generated. Information on cigarette placement, premium and low priced cigarette prices, promotions, functional objects, and advertising were extracted from this data set. Store observations were conducted from 1999 to 2001 during in the months of February through June. In 1999 2,972 retail outlets were observed, in 2000 2,998 were observed and in 2001 4,537 were observed. Retail outlets include convenience store, gas stations, grocery stores, supermarket, and pharmacies, among others. The resulting data allow a comparison of various physical tobacco retail environments in outlets. Comparisons will be presented by store type plus an overview of changes throughout the three-year period will be provided.
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