NEW YORK – The retail industry may be ailing, but for Walgreens Boots Alliance, the cure is more pharmacies.
The drugstore chain said Wednesday that it had completed its takeover of 1,932 new stores that it agreed last year to buy from Rite Aid Corp. While same-store sales in the front of Walgreens’ U.S. drugstores, where customers buy items like toilet paper and toothpaste, fell 2.7 percent in the fiscal second quarter, sales at the pharmacy counter in the back of the store grew 5.1 percent.
Walgreens’ adjusted earnings were $1.73 a share, beating analysts’ estimates. The company also raised its fiscal 2018 adjusted earnings outlook to $5.85 to $6.05 a share.
