Walgreens September sales increase 10 percent
Deerfield-based Walgreens had September sales of $4,854,000,000, an increase of 10 percent from $4,410,987,000 for the same month in 2007. Sales in comparable stores, those open at least a year, rose 4.7 percent, while comparable store front-end sales increased 1.3 percent.
September pharmacy sales increased 11.2 percent, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 6.5 percent. Comparable pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 2.4 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months. Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 3.5 percent. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike negatively impacted prescriptions filled by .9 percentage points, as hundreds of stores across the Gulf Coast were affected. September prescriptions filled were also negatively impacted by .6 percentage points due to the switch of Zyrtec from prescription to over-the-counter status. Pharmacy sales accounted for 67.2 percent of total sales for the month.
Calendar day shifts had a positive impact on the month, as pharmacy patients fill more prescriptions during the week than on weekends. This year, September had two more weekdays compared to September 2007. Calendar shifts positively impacted total comparable store sales by 3.1 percentage points, comparable pharmacy sales by 4.7 percentage points and prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 4.6 percentage points.
September front-end sales were helped in part by strong sales of consumables and key beauty items. Also, Zyrtec's switch to over-the-counter status benefited front-end sales by 0.6 percentage points.
Calendar year-to-date sales were $44,347,573,000, an increase of 9.9 percent from $40,355,293,000 in 2007.
Walgreens opened 36 stores during September, including three relocations, and acquired three stores.
At Sept. 30, Walgreens operated 6,971 locations in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. That includes 6,479 drugstores, 580 more than a year ago. The company also operates work site health centers, home care facilities and specialty, institutional and mail service pharmacies. Its Take Care Health Systems subsidiary manages 247 convenient care clinics at Walgreens drugstores. Franchisees of Option Care Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walgreens, are not included in Walgreens location or store count.