Walgreens same-store sales up in June

Walgreens reported that June sales at stores open at least a year increased 2 percent over last year.

The Deerfield-based drugstore chain said in a Tuesday release that its June sales of $5.67 billion include pharmacy sales that increased 1.8 percent. The effect of calendar day shifts positively impacted comparable pharmacy sales by 0.2 percentage point. Comparable pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 1.9 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months and by 0.3 percentage point due to lower incidence of flu. Pharmacy sales accounted for 65.6 percent of total sales for the month, the company said.

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 3.4 percent in June, including 1.3 percentage points due to more patients filling 90-day prescriptions.

Total front-end sales increased 10.9 percent in June, including 5.1 percentage points from Duane Reade. Comparable store front-end sales increased 2.2 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores increased 2 percent.

Calendar year-to-date sales were $33.52 billion, an increase of 5.4 percent from $31.80 billion in 2009.

Walgreens opened 24 stores during June, including five relocations, acquired one and closed one.

At the end of June, Walgreens operated 8,038 locations in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. That includes 7,541 drugstores, 639 more than a year ago, including 283 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.

Daily Herald business writer Kim Mikus contributed to this report.