Background: While tobacco advertising has been banned in Australia, retail outlets still provide an opportunity for the tobacco industry to promote smoking. The highly visible presence of tobacco products in a wide range of retail outlets provides a constant cue to smokers and may be a trigger to relapse in quitters.

Method: A diary study of recent or intended quitters to track purchase patterns, share of purchase across retail outlets and the relationship between personal stock out, repurchase and smoking activity.

Results:

Conclusions:

Implications:

While the tobacco industry has a comprehensive understanding of smokers' purchase cues, this study will provide tobacco control advocates with comparable data on the relationship between different types of cigarette outlets and quitter type by age, quit status, gender and socioeconomic level. It will also provide data on daily patterns of smoking and cigarette purchase and examine potential relationship between tobacco availability, social interaction and relapse.