Longs posts increase in year-on-year sales

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. Longs Drugs has released its reported preliminary total retail drug store sales for the four-week and seventeen-week periods ended May 29, 2008.

The company reported preliminary sales of $374 million for the four-week period, up 0.2 percent from the year-ago period. For the 17-week period, total sales reached $1.6 billion, up 2.3 percent from a year ago.

Longs estimated that preliminary May pharmacy same-store sales fell by 2.6 percent in May, as a result of recent generic introductions being substituted for higher-priced brand name drugs. In addition, a reduction in cold, flu, and allergy prescriptions, primarily due to the impact of the switch of the prescription allergy medicine Zyrtec to over-the-counter status furthered the decrease.

The company also estimated that preliminary May same-store sales, which include non-pharmacy items, fell 1.4 percent in the four weeks ended May 29.