Walgreen August total sales, same-store sales rise

Deerfield, Ill. Walgreen Co. reported Friday that total sales for the month of August rose 8.6%, to $5.66 billion.

Same-store-sales rose 2.1%, just missing Wall Street estimates.

Front-end same-store sales edged up just under 1%, while total front-end sales rose 8.3%. Pharmacy same-store sales rose 2.9%, while total pharmacy sales rose 8.6%.

The drugstore retailer said a calendar day shift positively impacted the August results.

For Walgreen's fourth quarter, which ended Aug. 31, total sales rose 7.6% to $16.89 billion. Same-store sales rose 1.5 %. For the full fiscal year, total sales rose 6.5% to $67.44 billion, while same-store sales rose 1.6%.

Walgreen opened 27 stores and closed eight in August. At the end of the month it ran 8,053 drug stores nationwide.