John Lewis reports cooler sales
British department store chain John Lewis added to concerns over the high street spending crunch today after slowing sales last week.
The retailer saw sales ahead 1.8% in the seven days to November 10 – lower than the overall 2.3% seen in the 15 weeks of the financial year so far.
Although colder weather helped clothing and there were strong sales of iPods and laptops, the department store chain said it had seen a “quiet start” to the week before sales picked up.
Sales across the partnership as a whole, which also owns the Waitrose supermarket chain, were up 3.4% over the week – again below the 4.5% growth across the 15 weeks.
The pressure adds to fears of a tough Christmas for retailers, with shoppers reining in spending as five interest rate hikes in 15 months filter through to mortgage payments.
Sales volumes fell for the first in nine months during October despite discounting to tempt would-be customers, official figures showed yesterday.
