Walgreen’s stock is trading near a 52 week high and they keep reporting “strong” sales. The Wall Street shysters sell the story of a well run company when in reality their sales are $9 billion higher than 2010, but their net income is lower. I guess they are using the Amazon formula for success. Below are the press releases for the last two months. The MSM “journalist” just regurgitates the storyline they are told to perpetuate. Here is what I note from the data:
Pharmacy sales were up 14% in December and 6.7% in November, but the number of prescriptions filled (customers) was only up 7.8% and 2.6%. That means that prices for prescriptions SOARED by 6.2% and 4.1% over the last two months. You see the beauty of Obamacare in all its glory. You have more customers because they now get their prescriptions for “free” (you are footing the bill through taxes and higher national debt), and the increase in demand allows drug makers and retailers to jack up the prices. Ain’t crony capitalistic socialism grand?
It seems customers at the front end are few and far between, as traffic was up a miniscule 0.3% in December and FELL 3.3% in November. The company uses the weasel term “customer basket” increases to hide the fact that prices went up 2.3% in December and 4.1% in November. The four year old Walgreen’s near my house is like a ghost town. How they can afford to keep it operating is beyond me.
Walgreen’s results tell me everything I need to know about Obamacare. If you offer free shit to people, they’ll take it. The free shit is being funded by our tax dollars and accumulating debt for future generations. It is all being subsidized by the easy money being doled out by the Federal Reserve. And Yellen is worried about deflation as healthcare premiums, care, and drugs go sky high.
Welcome to Bizarro World 2015.
Walgreen Dec sales surge on more severe flu season
By Tess Stynes
Published: Jan 6, 2015 8:40 a.m. ET
Walgreen Boots Alliance Inc. said December sales, excluding newly opened or closed locations, rose 9.2%, benefiting from a calendar shift and an early start to what is expected to be a severe flu season.
Shares rose 2.7% to $76.49 in recent premarket trading as sales exceeded expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for growth of 5.5%.
Pharmacy sales, excluding newly opened or closed locations, rose 14%, topping analysts’ views for an increase of 7.5%. Prescriptions filled rose 7.8%. Calendar shifts had a positive impact of 2.1 percentage points on sales, while a higher incidence of flu had a positive impact of 1.2 percentage points.
Sales in the front of the store increased 2.6% on the same basis, slightly above analysts’ estimates for 2.5% growth. Customer traffic edged up 0.3% and basket-size rose 2.3%.
Total drugstore sales for December rose 10% to $7.92 billion.
Walgreen Nov sales rise more than expected
By Tess Stynes
Published: Dec 3, 2014 8:42 a.m. ET
Walgreen Co. reported its sales at existing locations rose a better-than-expected 4.5% in November, led by growth in its pharmacy business.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected an increase of 3.8%.
Walgreen said pharmacy sales improved 6.7%, exceeding analysts’ estimate for an increase of 5.3%. Prescriptions filled rose 2.6%. A calendar shift had a negative impact of two percentage points and generic drug introductions over the past year had a negative impact of 1.9 percentage points.
Pharmacy sales represented 65.2% of total sales during November.
In the front of the store, sales edged up 0.8%, below analysts’ projections of 1.2% during the month, as customer traffic declined 3.3%, mostly offsetting an increase in basket size of 4.1%.
Total drugstore sales rose 4.9% to $6.36 billion for the month.
For the three-month period ended Nov. 30, the drugstore chain operator reported total sales rose 6.8% to $19.59 billion, above analysts’ estimates for $19.34 billion. Sales, excluding newly opened or closed locations, improved 5.8%, including growth of 1.5% in the front of the store and 8.3% in the pharmacy section.
The company has been under pressure owing to a miscalculation in the pricing of generic prescription drugs. Walgreen also has been taking steps to achieve $1 billion in costs savings by the end of fiscal 2017 and to complete its deal to buy the rest of European drugstore company Alliance Boots GmbH.
Is that the same “flu season” that will be used to blame overall poor retail sales in January/February?
Walgreens is a shit store.
Pretty brilliant actually, in a full on sleazeball way. . A big box chain full of chinese clutter, and subsidized by medicare part D. Jim collins wrote a book called ‘good to great’, and he used walgreens as an example of a great company. I sent him an email asking him how he squared his theories with the reality of counterfeit wall street money and chinese slave labor. Still waiting for that reply, jim.
I think the drug that they sell the most are ED pills. They’re supposed to have a generic version soon….it’s called Stifferen.
Of all the craptastic stores featured here, Walgreen’s is one I actually like.
The one here is extremely clean. The pharmacist and staff are always friendly and knowledgeable. Regarding the aisles being stocked with Chinese shit …. which store ISN’T?
Ms Freud was just there yesterday and bought about $50 in office supplies. The stats above probably don’t take that into account.
This is what I bought at Walgreen’s in Dec…
3 pkgs of inexpensive small gift bags
2 $5 fleece blankets for my grand puppies