Walgreen reports flat December in conservative holiday approach

A conservative approach to the holiday shopping season is the primary reason for a flat month of sales for Walgreen.

The Deerfield-based company reported Wednesday that sales in stores open at least a year decreased .3 percent in December.

Sales of non-pharmacy merchandise decreased 3.1 percent. The decline was driven primarily by the company's decision to take a cautious approach to buying this year's seasonal inventory compared with last year and as a result of a lower incidence of flu compared with December 2008, according to the company.

"In December 2008 we significantly discounted seasonal merchandise after buying substantial inventory in anticipation of a strong holiday season. This year, we took a more cautious buying approach and invested 28 percent fewer dollars in seasonal items for comparable stores," said Walgreens President and CEO Greg Wasson. "This significantly impacted holiday clearance sales, but it also positioned us to enter the new year in a better inventory position and with better gross margins compared with a year ago."

Pharmacy sales increased 1.8 percent in December at the company that reported total sales of $6.3 billion.

Prescriptions filled increased 4.1 percent in December. Comparable prescriptions filled were positively impacted by 1.1 percentage points due to more patients filling 90-day prescriptions. Pharmacy sales accounted for 59.4 percent of total sales for the month.

Walgreens customer traffic in comparable stores was down 0.8 percent in the month, while average sales per transaction fell 2.3 percent in comparable stores.

Walgreens operates 7,651 locations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. That includes 7,149 drugstores, 513 more than a year ago, including 55 stores acquired over the last 12 months.