Rite Aid also booked a $281,000 loss on asset sales versus a $1.72 million gain last year. After factoring in the $33.2 million loss on debt retirement, pretax income tumbled 74.3% to $37.9 million. At the top line, retail pharmacy segment sales expanded 1.9% to $6.65 billion in the second quarter, as a 2.1% increase in same-store sales was diluted by a year-over-year decline in store count. The same-store gain was driven by a 2.8% gain in the pharmacy that outpaced a 0.3% rise at the front end. Rite Aid said pharmacy results took a hit of 223 basis points from introductions of new generic drugs. The number of prescriptions dispensed edged up 0.2% on a same-store basis. Prescriptions generated 69.3% of total drug store sales. Karst noted that the slight increase in script count reflects Rite Aid's cycling of a strong expansion of Medicaid business a year ago.