Rite Aid same-store sales slide 1.9% in Aug.

Camp Hill, Pa. Rite Aid Corp. said its same-store sales fell 1.9% in August as out-of-work customers cut back on shopping.

The company said the difficult economy was particularly bad for its former Brooks Eckerd stores, where sales were already weaker than elsewhere in the chain. Rite Aid said its total sales fell 3.2% in August and 2.7% in the fiscal second quarter.

For the five weeks ended Aug. 29, Rite Aid said sales of non-pharmacy items, such as cosmetics, fell 5.3%, and pharmacy revenue slipped 0.2%.

Rite Aid said same-store sales at stores it purchased from the Brooks Eckerd chain fell 2.8%, with front-end sales decreasing 4.2% and pharmacy sales down 2.3%. At "core" Rite Aid stores, same-location revenue slid 1.5%, as front-end sales dropped 5.6% and pharmacy revenue grew 0.9%.

The company bought 1,850 stores from the Brooks Eckerd chain in June 2007.

For the quarter ended Aug. 29, same-store sales fell 1.1%, with front-end sales dropping 4.9% and pharmacy revenue up 0.8%. Brooks Eckerd same-store sales lost 2.3%, including a 4.7% drop in front-end revenue and a 1.4% slide in pharmacy sales.

At core stores, same-store revenue dipped 0.6%, with front-end sales off 4.9% and pharmacy revenue rising 2%.

Quarterly revenue dipped to $6.3 billion from $6.47 billion, in part because the company closed 118 stores over the past year. Rite Aid had 4,812 stores at the end of the quarter, down from 4,930 a year earlier.

In August, total revenue slid to $2.4 billion from $2.47 billion a year ago.