CAMP HILL, Pa. — Fueled by the pharmacy, Rite Aid Corp. tallied its largest monthly same-store sales growth for the calendar year in October.
Rite Aid on Thursday said that for the four weeks ended Oct. 22, comparable-store sales rose 2.9% versus a year earlier. That marked a rebound from a 1.3% uptick in September and was higher than the 2.5% comp-store sales gain in August, which previously had been the drug store chain’s biggest monthly increase in 2011.
Front-end same-store sales edged up 1.3% in October. Comparable pharmacy sales climbed 3.6% and reflected an approximate 160-basis-point negative impact from generic drug introductions, according to Rite Aid. Prescription count at comparable stores was up 1.3% over the prior-year period.
Rite Aid’s total drug store sales in October increased 2.8% to $1.96 billion from nearly $1.91 billion a year earlier.
For the 34-week year-to-date period ended Oct. 22, same-store sales gained 1.6%, including increases of 1.1% in the front end and 1.9% in the pharmacy. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores inched up 0.3%.
Year-to-date drug store sales came in at about $16.50 billion, up 1.1% from almost $16.32 billion in the year-ago period.
As of Oct. 22, Rite Aid operated 4,688 drug stores, compared with 4,735 stores a year ago.
