Walgreens December Sales Increase 7.5 Percent

Walgreens (NYSE: WAG)(NASDAQ: WAG) had December sales of $6.81 billion, an increase of 7.5 percent from $6.34 billion for the same month in 2009. Duane Reade stores, acquired in April 2010, contributed 2.5 percentage points to the total sales increase for the month.

Sales in comparable stores (those open at least a year) increased 2.8 percent. The effect of calendar day shifts negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.5 percentage point. Duane Reade stores are not included in any comparable store results.

Total front-end sales increased 9.5 percent in December, including 3.7 percentage points from Duane Reade stores. Comparable store front-end sales increased 3.6 percent, their highest increase in 14 months. Customer traffic in comparable stores increased 0.9 percent, while basket size increased 2.7 percent.

December pharmacy sales increased 6.0 percent, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 2.2 percent. The effect of calendar day shifts negatively impacted comparable pharmacy sales by 0.8 percentage point. Comparable pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 2.6 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months. Pharmacy sales accounted for 58.6 percent of total sales for the month.

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 2.9 percent in December, including 1.1 percentage points due to more patients filling 90-day prescriptions. Calendar day shifts negatively impacted prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 0.8 percentage point, while the higher incidence of flu positively impacted comparable prescriptions filled by 0.5 percentage point. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores were negatively impacted by 0.3 percentage point due to fewer flu shots.

Flu shots administered at pharmacies and clinics during December totaled more than 380,000, with nearly 6 million flu shots having been administered season-to-date.

Calendar year-to-date sales for 2010 were $68.87 billion, an increase of 6.0 percent from $64.97 billion in 2009.

Walgreens opened three stores during December, including one relocation, and acquired three stores.

At Dec. 31, Walgreens operated 8,136 locations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. That includes 7,655 drugstores, 506 more than a year ago, including 294 stores acquired over the last 12 months. The company also operates worksite health centers, home care facilities, and specialty and mail service pharmacies. Its Take Care Health Systems subsidiary manages more than 700 in-store convenient care clinics and worksite health and wellness centers. Franchisees of Option Care, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walgreens, are not included in Walgreens location or store count.

Please note: Sales numbers and the adjustments shown in the table 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. Acquired operating locations, including Duane Reade stores and relocations are not included as comparable stores for the first 12 months after the acquisition or relocation.

Statements in this release that are not historical are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, assumptions and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the incidence of flu and the number of flu shots administered as well as those described in Item 1A (Risk Factors) of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, each of which is incorporated herein by reference, and in other documents that we file or furnish with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those indicated or anticipated by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Except to the extent required by law, Walgreens undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement after the distribution of this release, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise.