Walgreen same-store sales rise on pharmacy gains

Drugstore operator Walgreen Co. said Thursday that same-store sales rose 3.4 percent in June, as a surge in pharmacy sales offset weak sales of seasonal items.

Pharmacy sales gained 5.8 percent last month despite the negative impact of new generic drug introductions. Meanwhile, same-store front-end sales _ which also includes items like cosmetics and food _ dipped 0.9 percent as seasonal sales lagged.

Total Walgreen sales jumped 9 percent to $5.24 billion.

The company said prescriptions filled at comparable stores rose 7.5 percent in June. Walgreen said a calendar shift that added an extra weekday in June helped boost those numbers, because pharmacy patients fill more prescriptions during the week than on weekends.

In total, Walgreen said calendar shifts boosted total same-store sales by 1.5 percentage points last month.

For the fiscal year-to-date period, same-store sales rose 2.1 percent, while total sales gained 7.4 percent to $52.87 billion.

As of June 30, Walgreen operated 7,407 locations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.