Walgreens Nov. Comparable Store Pharmacy Sales Up 4% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreens (WAG), Wednesday said comparable store pharmacy sales for November increased 4 percent, while pharmacy sales rose 4.7 percent. Adjusting for a calendar day-shift, comparable store pharmacy sales increased 6.3 percent, which was negatively impacted by 1 percentage point due to generic drug introductions in the last year, and positively impacted by 0.2 percentage point due to more flu shots than last year. However, the slow start to the flu season impacted the pharmacy sales by 0.3 percentage point.

Total front-end sales for November increased 3.2 percent, while comparable store front-end sales grew 1.9 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores increased 0.8 percent while basket size increased 1.1 percent. Pharmacy sales accounted for 63.5 percent of total sales for the month. Sales in comparable stores increased by 3.2 percent in November.

Monthly prescriptions filled at comparable stores climbed by 1.4 percent and increased 3.7 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis. This year's one additional Saturday and one fewer Thursday in November hurt prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 2.3 percentage points.

Walgreens opened 22 stores during November, including nine relocations, acquired a net total of 55 stores and closed one.