Rite Aid says its October sales grew 2.8% from a year ago to US$1.96B as sales at stores open at least a year grew 2.9%

Cindy Allen

CAMP HILL, Pennsylvania , October 27, 2011 (press release) – Drugstore operator Rite Aid Corp. said Thursday that its sales improved in October as revenue at its pharmacy counters increased.

The company said its total sales grew 2.8 percent to $1.96 billion from $1.91 billion. The results cover the four-week period that ended Oct. 22.

Sales at stores open at least a year grew 2.9 percent. At those stores, pharmacy revenue rose 3.6 percent, and sales of nonpharmacy items like food and cosmetics increased 1.3 percent. Prescriptions filled at those stores rose 1.3 percent.

Sales at stores open at least a year is considered a key measurement of retailer health because it leaves out results from stores that have opened or closed in the last year, focusing on the remaining stores. For Rite Aid, those sales have improved in recent months after a lengthy decline.

Rite Aid had 4,688 stores as of Oct. 22, down from 4,753 a year ago.

Its shares rose 6 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $1.13 in morning trading Thursday.

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