Pharmacy sales, which accounted for 64.5% of the month's total,were up 18.2% overall and 11.4% at stores open at least a year. Thenumber of prescriptions filled at comparable stores also increasedby 7% in November with front-end same-store sales improving by5.7%. The rise in pharmacy sales occurred despite a challenge byWal-Mart and other chains, which recently announced that they wouldfill some generic prescriptions for $4.

In October, locally based Walgreen's sales improved 18.2%,rising to $4.31 billion from $3.65 billion in the year ago period.Total pharmacy sales for October increased 21%, the company said.Comparable store sales were also up by 11.4% during October whilesame store sales increased 14.4%. Total prescriptions filled atcomparable stores rose 9.5% in October while front-end sales inthose stores increased 6.2%.

Earlier in November, Walgreen's posted first quarter total salesof $12.71 billion, a 16.6%-increase over the previous year's firstquarter sales of $10.90 billion. Sales at comparable stores were up9.7% during the three month period.