Despite a drop in pharmacy numbers during the five weeks ending August 27, merchandise sales increased 3% during the period in stores open at least a year.
Total drugstore sales for the five-week period increased 0.3% to $1.57 billion, up slightly over the $1.56 billion for the same perioda year earlier. Prescription sales accounted for 63.4% of totaldrugstore sales while third-party prescription revenue represented93.9%.
For the three-month quarter ending Aug. 27, overall same-store sales rose slightly by 0.6% with pharmacy sales dropping 0.8 % while merchandise sales increased 3%. Total sales for the quarter were up0.2% to $4.11 billion.
The locally based drugstore chain, the nation's third largest with 3,406 stores and annual revenue of $16.8 billion, said its year-to-date same-store sales for the 26 weeks ending Aug. 27 showed a0.1% increase that was marked by a 1% decline in pharmacy same-storesales while front-end sales for stores opened at least a year showed a2.2% increase. Total drugstore sales for the period declined 0.1 % to$8.31 billion from $8.33 billion in the same period a year earlier.Prescription sales during the period accounted for 63.5% of alldrugstore sales while third-party prescription revenue was 93.9% ofpharmacy sales.
The sluggish sales results follow months of internal turmoil forthe drugstore chain, which in August lost its chief financial officerJohn T. Standley to Pathmark Corp. He was replaced by Kevin Twomey, the firm's chief accounting officer just two weeks ago.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.