Store Scout

Store Scout App is an innovative decision-support tool, designed to provide a rapid appraisal of the in-store food retail environment against best practice to reduce discretionary dietary options and promote healthy food options, through providing real-time feedback to store owners and operators. It can be used to evaluate the food environment of remote stores, convenience stores, supermarkets and petrol stations across Australia. It may be found to be useful in similar food retail settings outside of Australia.

The App generates store environment index scores related to the 4Ps of marketing (Promotion, Price, Product, Placement) and categorised by the key food sections fruit and vegetables, drinks, snack food, meals/convenience foods, bread and cereals, meat and seafood and dairy and eggs. It also includes a store manager survey.

On completing a full assessment of store practice using the App, an overall store environment index score is generated and a summary of evidence-based actions to improve the healthiness of the food retail environment are provided (e.g. removing confectionery from the front counter). These can be used to facilitate discussion with the business owners and managers on what might be feasible and acceptable for their store. A validation study found the App to have very good inter-rater reliability, and high internal consistency.

The Store Scout App was developed by Menzies School of Health Research as a tool for the nutrition workforce servicing remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It is now managed by Monash University Department of Nutrition Dietetics and Food through an agreement with Menzies School of Health Research.

The Store Scout app is only available to registered users. To access or find out more information please contact us at base.nutrition@monash.edu

Related publications:

McMahon E, Jaenke R, Brimblecombe J A Mobile App to Rapidly Appraise the In-Store Food Environment: Reliability, Utility, and Construct Validity Study JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2020;8(7):e16971 URL: https://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/7/e16971 DOI: 10.2196/16971

Jaenke, R., Van den Boogaard, C., McMahon, E., & Brimblecombe, J. (2021). Development and pilot of a tool to measure the healthiness of the in-store food environment. Public Health Nutrition, 24(2), 243-252. doi:10.1017/S1368980020002025