Walgreens sees spike in July sales

DEERFIELD, Ill. Walgreens had July sales of approximately $5.27 billion, an increase of 7.3% for the same month in 2008. Sales in comparable stores (those open at least a year) increased 2%.

Comparable store front-end sales decreased 1.3%. Front-end sales were hurt by slowing sales of discretionary items in a challenging economy.

July pharmacy sales increased 8.4%, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 3.8%. Comparable pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by four percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months.

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 5% in July, including 1.7 percentage points due to more patients filling 90-day prescriptions. Pharmacy sales accounted for 66.8 percent of total sales for the month.

Walgreens opened 45 stores during July, including three relocations, and closed one store.

At July 31, Walgreens operated 7,449 locations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. That includes 6,943 drugstores, 587 more than a year ago, including 70 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 720 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.