Top American drug chains by pharmacy volume

Drug Store News, April 28, 1997

The percent of sales from pharmacy continued its inexorable climb in the chain drug industry, with the majority of the top 50 chains reporting increases. And more crossed the 50 percent of sales from pharmacy mark. In 1995, 20 chains earned 50 percent or more of their sales from the pharmacy. In 1996, 25 chains were at or over the 50 percent mark.

The bulk of the percent increases hovered at the 2 percentage point mark. However, industry leader Walgreens' percent of sales from pharmacy climbed 4 percentage points, to 47 percent. Rite Aid's percent of sales also climbed 4 points, to 54 percent. Leading the pack in increases in 1996 were Harco Drug and Super D, each increasing their percentage from pharmacy sales by 6 points; followed by Brooks, and DrugTown, with 5 point increases; and in addition to Walgreens and Rite Aid, May's reported a 5 point increase.

Rankings changed a bit. For example, last year's No. 4, Revco, edged out last year's No. 3 Eckerd for the No. 3 spot on this year's list. But once pharmacy sales from Eckerd's merger with Thrift hits its books, Eckerd will catapult back over Revco, even though the Big B acquisition will contribute to Revco's pharmacy statistics.

Pharmacy sales per store also continued to climb in 1996. Walgreens increased its pharmacy sales by $400,000 per store; Arbor matched that climb, increasing its per store pharmacy sales to $2.4 million from last year's $2 million. Reporting increases of some $300,000 per store were CVS, Longs and Brooks. Revco's pharmacy sales jumped $200,000 per store, as did Eckerd's, Genovese's, Snyder's Drug and Discount Drug Mart.

                             Volume of      % of sales   Number of
Rank    Company              pharmacy        from Rx     pharmacies
                             ($ millions)

 1       Walgreen Co.          $5,324           45%         2,163
 2       Rite Aid Corp. (1)     3,764           54          3,585
 3       Revco D.S. (2)         2,954           58          2,184
 4       Eckerd Corp. (3)       2,935           54          1,741
 5       CVS                    2,418           44          1,240
 6       American               2,054           39            879
         Drug Stores (4)
 7       Thrift Drug (5)        1,461           60            894
 8       Medicine Shoppe          978           94          1,042
         International
 9       Longs                    933           33            328
         Drug Stores
10      Arbor Drugs              421           51            182
11      Big B                    398           51            380
12      Drug Emporium            378           27            234
13      Brooks Pharmacy          338           56            226
14      Genovese                 266           38            124
15      Phar-Mor                 250           24            100
16      K&B                      212           37            182
17      Harco Drug               150           58            151
18      Snyder's Drugs           126           62             72
19      Super D Drugs            118           66            114
20      Medicap                  105           95            130
        Pharmacies
21      Discount                  96           33             42
        Drug Mart
22      Duane Reade               92           24             60
23      Happy Harry's             89           59             33
        Discount Drugs
24      Kinney Drugs              76           56             47
25      Arrow Corp.               76           90             52
26      Marc's                    75           15             33
27      Pharmhouse                70           30             38
28      Thrifty Drug              68           66             44
        Stores (formerly)
        Thrifty-White)
29      Sav-Mor                   60           50             57
30      Drug Fair/                55           23             30
        Cost Cutter
31      May's Drug                51           54             33
        Stores
32      Thriftway                 48           42             27
33      Medic Discount            47           52             30
34      Hi-School                 42           56             40
        Pharmacy
35      Bartell Drug              42           36             41
36      DrugTown                  38           45             23
37      Edgehill Drugs            36           70             25
38      Mediserv                  31           96             18
39      Navarro                   30           33              7
40      Big A/Drug                30           30              7
41      Fruth Pharmacy            28           52             21
42      True Quality              23           65             22
43      Lewis Drugs               23           50             10
44      Med-X Corp.               22           44             20
45      Sedano's                  21           40             12
46      Rockbottom                15            6             14
47      Fedco Inc.                11           25             16
48      Texas Drug                 9           13             11
        Warehouse
49      Love's Stores              6           10              9
50      Harmon                     4            6              2
        Discount Stores

          Rx sales
Rank      per store
        ($ millions)

1          $2.5
2           1.0
3           1.4
4           1.7
5           2.0
6           2.3

7           1.6
8           0.9

9           2.8

10          2.3
11          1.0
12          1.6
13          1.5
14          2.1
15          2.5
16          1.2
17          1.0
18          1.8
19          1.0
20          0.8

21          2.3

22          1.5
23          2.7

24          1.6
25          1.5
26          2.3
27          1.8
28          1.5


29          1.1
30          1.8

31          1.5

32          1.8
33          1.6
34          1.1

35          1.0
36          1.6
37          1.5
38          1.7
39          4.3
40          4.3
41          1.3
42          1.0
43          2.3
44          1.1
45          1.7
46          1.1
47          0.7
48          0.8

49          0.7
50          2.0