John Lewis sales hit
August 22, 2008
The employee owned store chain, John Lewis said its sales fell 4.2% in its department stores compared to last year.
The retailer claimed that shoppers had been distracted by the Olympics and exam results.
In the week to August 16 at their 26 department stores sales fell to £47.2 million. This is the 10th week out of 15 that sales fell as consumers cut back on spending due to soaring fuel, food and mortgage costs.
John Lewis is not the only retailer struggling as shoppers cut spending. Retailers of expensive goods are worst hit as fewer people are moving house and house prices continuing to fall.
Analysts expect the fall on like-for-like basis, which takes out new stores, to be around 7%.
The fall in sales comprises of a 9.4% fall in sales in the homewares department and a 5.3% decline in electrical goods and home technology.
The group own grocery chain Waitrose. Sales at the 189 stores increased 2.3% to £72.4 million but were negative on a like0for-like basis, in spite of high food price inflation.
Visit www.johnlewis.com and www.waitrose.com for more information on both stores.
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