Store Assessments: A powerful tool for understanding the retail environment
Marketing and promotions for alcohol and tobacco products saturate retail stores in most communities—the same places where you buy milk, snacks, and medicine. Research has shown that exposure to advertising and promotions for these products have a number of negative health impacts, such as prompting youth initiation, encouraging impulse purchases, and leading to brand preference. [More]
The benefits of mapping alcohol outlets
Mapping is a public health tool that has been used for centuries to find patterns, tell stories, and support policies. In 1854, mapping the location of cholera deaths allowed John Snow to identify a pattern and ultimately determine the source of the outbreak. While our technology has greatly improved, the same basic idea of using [More]
Webinar – Innovative Local Solutions in Public Health
We recently hosted a webinar with CADCA GHEA about local-level policy solutions in Maryland and California. These efforts advanced policies relating to alcohol and healthy food. We often see innovative policy solutions tested first at the local-level. In this webinar, you’ll learn about alcoholic beverage regulations in Montgomery County, the sole “control” jurisdiction in the [More]
LGBTQ+ health disparities and targeting by Big Tobacco and Alcohol
For years, the tobacco industry has come under fire for targeting their marketing to specific groups, such as youth and people of color. We don’t often talk enough about members of the LGBTQ+ community being targeted by the tobacco and alcohol industries. These industry strategies contribute to health disparities experienced by LGBTQ+ individuals and highlight [More]
Healthy POS Webinar Series: Alcohol at the POS – Places, Promotions, and Problems
We hosted a webinar in our "Healthy POS Webinar Series" on Thursday, June 17 at 11am EST. Our guest speaker was Dr. Pamela Trangenstein, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Behavior, UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health; and a leading alcohol researcher. The advertising and selling of alcohol products at alcohol outlets (e.g., [More]
Is alcohol essential? Lessons from Covid-19 on how policy impacts access
Many states deemed liquor stores "essential" businesses during the pandemic lockdowns and were allowed to remain open. Other changes such as to-go alcoholic beverages and curbside pick-up helped contribute to a significant spike in off-premise alcohol sales. While these changes may be seen as wins for the economy, it’s important to remember the significant public [More]
Addressing Health Disparities Through Alcohol Outlet Density
There are many ways the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our daily lives. One of many interesting public health observations is the impact of the pandemic on alcohol consumption. Thanks in part to many bars and restaurants being closed at some point during the last year, off-premise alcohol sales saw a significant spike in spring 2020 [More]
Success Story: Addressing and Improving the Landscape of Food and Alcohol Products in Wisconsin
We have a new success story about our partner in Wisconsin that serves as a good example of the importance of collecting data about the retail environment, having cross-sector collaboration in efforts, and increasing access to healthy products for the betterment of population health. Counter Tools has partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services [More]
