Sales growth slows at John Lewis
FRESH evidence that consumers are suffering from shopping overload came from department stores group John Lewis, which reported a sharp fall in sales last week.
Group sales in the week to 19 January were 4.7% up on the same week a year ago, against a 9.2% increase the previous week. The value of sales at its stores fell to £35m from £37m the week before.
'Reports from branches suggest that, Christmas and clearance sales now past, there may be a degree of spending fatigue,' said Nigel Brotherton, John Lewis's administration director. 'Trade fell back last week and, although this follows the normal pattern at this time of year, the effect was sharper than usual and we were some way short of estimates.'
The slowdown was seen across all departments, but was particularly sharp in furnishing textiles, such as carpets and curtains, and fashion accessories. John Lewis is the latest to report consumers are tightening purse strings after splashing out for Christmas.
On Wednesday, monitoring firm FootFall said the number of visitors to 50 of Britain's biggest shopping centres last week was 3.7% lower than the week before and 9.4% lower than the same week a year ago.
