Walgreens October Sales Increase 9.4 Percent

November 3, 2009 8:01 AM EST

DEERFIELD, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (NASDAQ: WAG) had October sales of $5,650,600,000, an increase of 9.4 percent from $5,164,613,000 for the same month in 2008. Sales in comparable stores (those open at least a year) increased 4.9 percent, while comparable store front-end sales increased 4.7 percent.

October pharmacy sales increased 9.3 percent, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 5.0 percent. Comparable pharmacy sales were positively impacted by 1.0 percentage points due to seasonal flu shots, and negatively impacted by 2.2 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months.

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 8.6 percent in October, including 2.4 percentage points due to seasonal flu shots and 1.3 percentage points due to more patients filling 90-day prescriptions. Pharmacy sales accounted for 66.3 percent of total sales for the month.

The impact of calendar day shifts (not included in the numbers above) had a negative effect on October, which had one less Wednesday and one extra Saturday compared to October 2008. Calendar shifts negatively impacted total comparable store sales by 1.1 percentage points, comparable pharmacy sales by 1.7 percentage points and prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 1.7 percentage points.

Calendar year-to-date sales were $53,278,662,000, an increase of 7.6 percent from $49,507,264,000 in 2008.

Walgreens fiscal 2010 year-to-date sales for the first two months were $11,008,869,000.

Walgreens opened 69 stores during October, including eight relocations.

At Oct. 31, Walgreens operated 7,603 locations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. That includes 7,105 drugstores, 562 more than a year ago, including 66 stores acquired over the last 12 months. The company also operates worksite health centers, home care facilities and specialty, institutional and mail service pharmacies. Its Take Care Health Systems subsidiary manages more than 700 in-store convenient care clinics and worksite health and wellness centers. Franchisees of Option Care, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walgreens, are not included in Walgreens location or store count.

Please note: Monthly sales numbers are preliminary and unaudited. Comparable stores are defined as those drugstore locations open for at least 12 consecutive months without closure for seven or more consecutive days and without a major remodel or a natural disaster in the past 12 months. Relocated and acquired stores are not included as comparable stores for the first 12 months after the relocation or acquisition.

    Source: Walgreens

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