NEW YORK — Drugstore operator Walgreen Co. said yesterday its profit fell 10 percent in its fiscal first quarter, short of Wall Street expectations, because of the costs of opening more than 200 new stores.

The company said it plans to slow the opening of new stores to save $500 million in response to the recession.

Walgreen opened its first Hawai'i store last year on Ke'eaumoku Street near Ala Moana Center. It opened a second store in Kane'ohe last month, and has said it plans on opening 25 to 30 stores on O'ahu and the Neighbor Islands over the next several years.

The Deerfield, Ill., company earned $408 million, or 41 cents a share, in the three months ended Nov. 30. That fell short of analyst expectations, and compares with $456 million, or 46 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue grew 7 percent to $14.95 billion.

Analysts expected 46 cents per share and $15.08 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

Walgreen said its selling and general expenses grew 9 percent in the quarter as it opened 212 new stores, and profit margins dipped due to greater expense provisions.

Sales at its older stores grew 1.7 percent, with prescription revenue in older stores growing 2.6 percent. Sales of nonprescription products, were flat compared with last year, showing some resilience in a down economy.

The company said prescriptions filled grew 3.7 percent during the quarter, while industry data has showed falling prescriptions for its rivals. In total, 66 percent of Walgreen's revenue came from prescription sales.

At stores open at least one year, prescriptions filled were roughly flat with last year. However, more customers filled 90-day prescriptions instead of 30-day orders, leading to adjusted growth of 1.5 percent.