Posted at 12 p.m., Friday, May 4, 2001

Longs store sales rise 6.6%

Advertiser News Services

Longs Drug Stores Corp. today reported preliminary net sales of $322.4 million for the month of April, a 5.3

percent increase over $306.1 million the same month a year ago.

The company, one of the largest drug store chains in North America, said preliminary total sales of $1.03 billion for the first quarter ended April 26 increased 8.0 percent over first quarter last year.

Same-store sales for the quarter rose 6.6 percent over the first quarter last year, with pharmacy same-store sales increasing 14.3 percent.

Longs, which operates 417 stores in California, Hawai'i, Washington, Nevada, Colorado and Oregon, said it plans to open more than 20 new stores this year.

Longs said today it plans to announce its first-quarter results May 14 and has scheduled a conference call at 4:30 p.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. Hawai'i time) to discuss its performance. The company will webcast the call on its Website at www.longs .com