Drug Bust

The two largest U.S. drugstore chains — Walgreen Co.(Deerfield, Ill.) and CVS Corp. (Woonsocket, R.I.) — both reported August same-store sales gains of 7.9 percent, less than expected for both retailers. Each had been expected by Wall Street analysts to show roughly 9 percent growth.

Weaker-than-expected front-ends (or non-pharmacy) sales weighed on both chains. Walgreen showed a 13.8 percent gain in pharmacy sales, but the front end fell 0.7 percent for the month. CVS showed pharmacy sales gains of 11.4 percent, but front-end same-store sales increased just 1.3 percent.