Rite Aid October sales fall on weak front-end

Rite Aid October key sales measure falls, weighed down by weak front-end sales

• On 9:01 am EDT, Thursday October 29, 2009

CAMP HILL, Pa. (AP) -- Drugstore operator Rite Aid Corp. said Thursday sales at stores open at least a year fell 0.5 percent in October, weighed down by lower sales of consumer and non-pharmacy products.

Front-end, or non-pharmacy product, sales fell 2.7 percent while pharmacy sales rose 0.5 percent. Tracking sales at stores open for at least a year eliminates the effects of store expansion.

Rite Aid said its total sales, which includes all stores, even those opened in the last year, fell 1.7 percent to $1.96 billion in October.

Year-to-date sales at stores open at least a year fell 0.3 percent, while total sales for the year-to-date period slid 1.9 percent to $16.71 billion.

Rite Aid had 4,807 stores at the end of the quarter, down from 4,920 at the same time a year earlier.