"Location is everything," goes the old adage. Well, we've taken it to heart at CVS by entering some of the fastest-growing U.S. drugstore markets over the past five years. From Illinois, Minnesota, and Nevada to Arizona and Southern California, we've been introducing shoppers to the "CVS easy" approach to retail. They've responded by keeping CVS/pharmacy firmly atop our industry in sales per square foot. Of course, we've made it a snap for customers to find us. That's because our stores are conveniently located within two miles of half the population in our markets.

With 5,420 locations and counting, CVS pharmacies fill one in every five prescriptions in our markets. We dispensed more than 400 million scripts in 2005, and our growth in this area is outpacing food, drug, and mass retailers as a whole. That's critical because the pharmacy generates 70 percent of total CVS sales. Our 2004 acquisition of more than 1,100 Eckerd stores, primarily in Florida and Texas, has vaulted us into key leadership positions in these important markets virtually overnight. And our planned acquisition of 700 Sav-on and Osco drugstores will further enhance our market leadership and geographic reach in large and growing drugstore markets.