Ross Stores, Inc (ROST) March sales increased 8% to $682 million compared to $633 million a year ago. Same store sales rose 3% in the month.

For the nine weeks ended April 4, 2009 sales increased 8% to $1.16 billion from $1.08 billion in the nine weeks ended April 5, 2008. Comparable store sales increased 2%.

The company now project earnings per share for the thirteen weeks ending May 2, 2009 will be between $0.68 and $0.70 compared to prior forecast of $0.56 to $0.61.

Walgreen Sales Growth Slows

Walgreen Company (WAG) reported March sales increased 6.8% to $5.46 billion from $5.11 billion a year ago period. Comparable same stores increased 1.5% and at front-end of the stores sales fell 5.6%.

Total pharmacy sales increased 10.2% while comparable pharmacy sales increased 5.7% in the month. Comparable pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 2.8% points due to generic drug introductions in the last twelve months. Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 4.9%.

Walgreens opened 69 drugstores during March, including 11 relocations.