Walgreens September Comp Sales Decrease 7.8 Percen

Walgreens

had September sales of $5.48 billion, a decrease of 7.8 percent from $5.94 billion for the same month in fiscal 2012. Total front-end sales decreased 0.4 percent compared with the same month in fiscal 2012, while comparable store front-end sales decreased 1.5 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 2.3 percent while basket size increased 0.8 percent. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores decreased by 10.3 percent in September and by a day-fall adjusted (DFA) 6.8 percent. This year's September had one additional Saturday and Sunday and one fewer Thursday and Friday compared with September 2011, negatively impacting prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 3.5 percentage points. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores also were negatively impacted by 0.4 percentage point due to fewer flu shots versus last year and were positively impacted by 0.1 percentage point due to the higher incidence of flu in this year's September.