Walgreens May sales up 10%

DEERFIELD, Ill. Walgreens reported May sales of $5.o4 billion an increase of 10% from $4.58 billion for the same month in 2007. Sales in comparable-stores rose 3.9%, while comparable-store front-end sales increased 6%.

May front-end sales were helped in part by the allergy medicine Zyrtec, which recently switched from prescription to over-the-counter status, and by strong sales of consumables.

May pharmacy sales increased 8.3%, while comparable-pharmacy sales increased 2.8%. Comparable pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 2.1 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months.

Pharmacy sales accounted for 64.8% of total sales for the month.