Walgreens May Sales Increase 10.0 Percent

Business Wire, June 3, 2008

DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (NASDAQ: WAG) had May sales of $5,042,100,000, an increase of 10.0 percent from $4,584,294,000 for the same month in 2007. Sales in comparable stores (those open at least a year) rose 3.9 percent, while comparable store front-end sales increased 6.0 percent.

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

Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 0.4 percent. Calendar day shifts accounted for a negative impact of 1.4 percentage points on comparable prescriptions filled. May prescriptions filled also were negatively impacted by 1.4 percentage points due to a slower flu season for prescriptions compared to last year and the switch of Zyrtec to over-the-counter status.

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

Calendar 2008 sales were $24,877,966,000, an increase of 10.5 percent from $22,522,737,000 in 2007.

Fiscal 2008 year-to-date sales for the nine months were $44,418,678,000, up 10.1 percent from $40,340,503,000. Comparable store sales for the fiscal year to date increased 4.5 percent.

Walgreens opened 43 drugstores during May, including two relocations, and acquired seven drugstores.

At May 31, Walgreens operated 6,727 locations in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. That includes 6,252 drugstores, 554 more than a year ago. The company also operates worksite health centers, home care facilities and specialty, institutional and mail service pharmacies. Its Take Care Health Systems subsidiary manages 172 convenient care clinics at Walgreens drugstores. Franchisees of Option Care, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walgreens, are not included in Walgreens location or store count.

Please note: Monthly sales numbers are preliminary and unaudited. Comparable stores are defined as those drugstore locations open for at least 12 consecutive months without closure for seven or more consecutive days and without a major remodel or a natural disaster in the past 12 months. Relocated and acquired stores are not included as comparable stores for the first 12 months after the relocation or acquisition.