Rite Aid same store sales up 2.5%, helped by Hurricane Irene
Drugstore chain Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD) said Thursday that comparable store sales rose 2.5% in August as customers came into stores to stock up before Hurricane Irene's arrival.
Comparable store sales - stores that are open at least one year - is a key metric used to gauge a retailer's health because it excludes results from stores that have opened or closed in the last year.
For the five weeks ending August 27, the company's front-end sales, items that include food and batteries, were up 2.9%. Rite Aid said hurricane preparations were responsible for 1.5 percent of that growth.
Pharmacy same-store sales, which included about 132 basis points negative impact from new generic introductions, increased 2.3%. Prescription count at comparable stores increased 0.2% over the prior-year period.
Meanwhile, total drugstore sales for the five-week period grew 2.5% to $2.4 billion up from $2.3 billion a year ago.
Prescription revenue accounted for 68.2% of drugstore sales and third party prescription revenue reflected 96.4% of pharmacy sales, Rite Aid said.
Rite Aid - one of the largest drugstore chains in the U.S. - operated 4,697 stores compared to 4,747 stores in the same period a year ago.
The Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based company's shares traded at $1.10 late Thursday afternoon on the New York Stock market.
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