Walgreens December Comparable Stores Sales Rise 6.1% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreens (WAG) reported that comparable stores sales increased by 6.1 percent in December. Calendar day shifts positively impacted total comparable sales by 1.7 percentage points, while generic drug introductions in the last 12 months negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.7 percentage point.

Monthly sales were $7.20 billion, an increase of 7.2 percent from $6.72 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013.

Total front-end sales increased 4.0 percent compared with the same month in fiscal 2013, while comparable store front-end sales increased 2.5 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 1.3 percent while basket size increased 3.8 percent.

According to the company, December pharmacy sales increased by 10.2 percent, while comparable store pharmacy sales increased 9.0 percent and increased by a calendar day-shift adjusted 6.1 percent. Calendar day shifts positively impacted pharmacy sales in comparable stores by 2.9 percentage points.

Calendar day-shift adjusted comparable store pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 1.2 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months, and were negatively impacted by 0.2 percentage point due to fewer flu shots in December versus last year. The lower incidence of flu negatively impacted pharmacy sales by 0.4 percentage point. Pharmacy sales accounted for 58.3 percent of total sales for the month.