Walgreens reported sales of $7.20 billion in December 2013, a year-over-year increase of 7.2% from the December 2012 sales total of $6.72 billion. Concurrently, year-to-date sales were revealed to be $73.72 billion, an increase of 4.5% from $70.52 billion in 2013. The retailer’s 2014 fiscal year officially began Sept. 1, 2013. Year-to-date sales for the first four months are $25.54 billion, up 6.3% from $24.03 billion in the comparable period in fiscal 2013. December 2013 front-end sales increased 4% over December 2012 totals, while comparable store front-end sales increased 2.5%. While customer traffic in comparable stores actually decreased 1.3%, basket sizes increased 3.8% Calendar day shifts positively impacted total sales in comparable stores, which increased by 6.1% in December, and pharmacy sales in comparable stores, which rose 9.0%. The introduction of generic drugs in the last 12 months negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.7% and pharmacy sales by 1.2%. Pharmacy sales accounted for 58.3% of total sales for the month of December.
Flu shots administered at pharmacies and clinics season-to-date were more than 6.7 million, growing from the nearly 5.5 million last year.
All sales numbers are preliminary, and are subject to change.
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