John Lewis suffered a dramatic collapse in trade with sales down in
every store last week as the autumn heatwave kept shoppers away.
Like-for-like sales were down nearly 10%, an outcome that Seymour
Pierce analyst Freddie George described it as a "horror of a week". He
calculated that underlying sales were down as much as 15% if the
figure was adjusted to allow for new stores.
The hot spell was bad news for the high street, especially fashion
retailers whose shops are full of winter jackets and jumpers. The
retailer, which is regarded as a barometer for high street trading,
said clothing sales slumped 13% in the week to last Saturday while
homewares were off nearly 6%.
|
