In 1995 the NT Dept. of Health and Community Services developed the NT Food
and Nutrition Policy. One of the strategies identified in this policy was to develop a tool (the “Market Basket Survey”) to monitor food cost, availability, variety and quality in remote community stores. The Market Basket Survey also enables information to be
collected on: store management, employment of Indigenous people, existence of a store
nutrition policy, community development initiatives by the store such as sponsorship and donations, nutrition promotions and store worker training. The first Territory wide survey of remote stores was carried out in 1998 when 45 stores were surveyed.