(RTTNews) - Bolstered by seasonal flu vaccinations, drugstore chain Walgreen Co. (WAG: News ) posted a 4.9% growth in comparable-store sales for the month of October 2009. Comparable store front-end sales increased 4.7% for the month.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company's sales for the month were $5.65 billion, an increase of 9.4%, compared to $5.16 billion in the year-ago period.

For the month of October, Walgreen's pharmacy sales rose 9.3%, while comparable pharmacy sales advanced 5%. Comparable pharmacy sales were positively impacted by 1.0 percentage points due to seasonal flu shots, and negatively impacted by 2.2 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months.

Further, prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 8.6% in October, including 2.4 percentage points due to seasonal flu shots and 1.3 percentage points due to more patients filling 90-day prescriptions. Pharmacy sales accounted for 66.3% of total sales for the month.

The company noted that the impact of calendar day shifts had a negative effect on October, which had one less Wednesday and one extra Saturday compared to October 2008. Calendar shifts negatively impacted total comparable store sales by 1.1 percentage points, comparable pharmacy sales by 1.7 percentage points and prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 1.7 percentage points.

Year-to-date, calendar sales totaled $53.28 billion, up 7.6% from $49.51 billion in the same period last year. Walgreens fiscal 2010 year-to-date sales for the first two months amounted to $11 billion.
For the preceding month of September, the company reported a 5.3% increase in sales at comparable stores. Sales grew 10.3% to $5.349 billion from $4.849 billion for the same month in 2008.

During October, Walgreen, which also operates worksite health centers, home care facilities, opened 69 stores, including eight re-locations. As at Octpber 31, Walgreens operated 7,603 locations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

Among Walgreen's peers, Rite Aid Corp. (RAD) reported october same-store sales decline of 0.5%. The Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid's June front-end same-store sales dropped 2.7%, while pharmacy same-store sales, which included an approximate 200 basis points negative impact from new generic introductions, edged up 0.5%.

Rite Aid's total drugstore sales for the month decreased 1.7% to $1.962 billion from $1.997 billion in the comparable period last year.

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