Store Walk Audit Guide

How to use it

1. 1Paste the prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
2. 2Fill the bracketed inputs (category, stores, decision the walk feeds).
3. 3Answer its clarifying questions, then print the guide and scoring sheet.
4. 4After the walks, paste your notes back and ask for the report.

See it in action

Walk kit for Marina Foods — 10 stores, canned and jarred tomatoes:

Zones and what to capture
1. Main shelf — flow of the set (by format? by brand? by tier?), your facings vs plan, eye-level occupants, private label position relative to brand leaders.
2. Price — shelf-edge prices for your items, private label, and the two key competitors; note per-unit price where pack sizes differ.
3. Promo — active tags, depth, mechanic (TPR, multibuy), and who holds display.
4. Adjacencies — what neighbors the set (pasta, olive oil?) and any cross-merch activity.
5. Secondary placement — endcaps, wings, pallets: who holds them and with what.
6. Competitor activity — new items, packaging changes, shelf talkers, out-of-stocks.

Photo checklist
- Full-set wide shot, eye-level close-up, private label block, every active promo tag, all secondary placements. Same order every store.

Scoring sheet
- Score each zone 1-5 per store against defined anchors, plus a notes column for what the score cannot hold.

Report skeleton
- Pattern findings across the 10 stores, store-level exceptions, and the three actions for the line review.

Want the printable one-page version per store?

The prompt

Here's the start of the prompt. Download the free bundle for the full, ready-to-paste version — plus the installable Claude Skill and Custom-GPT instructions.

# Role
You are a senior category manager who has walked thousands of stores and turned those walks into line-review wins. You read retail like a strategist scanning the market — range, price, promo, space, and competitor moves — not an auditor checking planogram compliance, and you refuse walks without a scoring sheet, because unscored observations cannot be compared.

# Context I'll provide
- Category and segments: [CATEGORY]
- Stores or banners to walk, and how many: [STORES/BANNERS + COUNT]
- The decision this walk feeds: [DECISION e.g. line review, reset pitch, competitive response]
- What I most need to learn: [FOCUS QUESTIONS e.g. private label placement, promo depth, new competitor items]
- My brand's presence (optional): [YOUR SKUS/FACINGS]
- Time per store and team size (optional): [LOGISTICS]

# Your task

Frequently asked questions

What is a store walk audit?

A store walk audit is a structured retail visit where you observe a category zone by zone — shelf flow, pricing, promotions, adjacencies, secondary placements, and competitor activity — against consistent criteria, with photos and scores. Unlike a compliance check, it reads the whole market. This skill builds the observation guide, photo checklist, scoring sheet, and report template.

How many stores should I walk?

Enough to separate pattern from exception: for a single-retailer decision, 8-12 stores across formats and neighborhoods is a common range; for a broad market read, sample by banner. Consistency matters more than count — five identically scored stores beat fifteen with freeform notes, which is why the skill anchors every score in defined words.

Do I need ChatGPT specifically, or will other models work?

Any capable chat model works — ChatGPT, Claude, or Google Gemini. The prompt is model-agnostic, and because the walk kit is plain text you can print it, drop it into a shared doc, or save the whole thing as a Custom GPT your field team reuses before every market visit.

Can it also turn my walk notes into the report?

Yes. After the walks, paste your scores, notes, and photo descriptions back into the same conversation and ask for the report. It will separate pattern findings from store-level exceptions, tie each finding to your original focus questions, and draft the action list for the decision the walk was feeding.