The Shopping Spy: Inside the Drugstores

It is, by now, a truism that drugstores are struggling with sales of non-pharmacy items, as their consumers make do without discretionary products like cosmetics and hair care.

At all three public drugstores -- Walgreen(WAG Quote), Rite Aid(RAD Quote) and CVS/Caremark(CVS Quote) -- pharmacy sales are far outpacing sales at the front end.

In Rite Aid's first quarter, pharmacy same-store sales grew 1.6%, while front-end comparable sales declined by the same amount. Walgreen reported a 3.8% uptick in its pharmacy same-store sales in the third quarter, while comps at the front-end rose a measly .9%. ...