John Lewis Reports 3% Slump Together With Fewer Recorded Footfalls on High Street

The British chain upmarket department stores, John Lewis, suffered a 3% fall as August ended and continued the disappointing trend of decreasing High Street sales.

As it appeared on The Guardian, John Lewis said their overall sales for the last week of August 2015 were £81.7m, which is 3.4% less compared to last year's sale in the same period.

The data showed that August was the worst month on High Street since the height of the recession. According to This Is Money, Retail sales were down by 4%.

Accendo Markets head researcher, Mike van Dulken, said the reason for this is the consumers' choice to stay at home due to the wet and cold August weather. He also said that "blame is also being pinned on a stronger pound seeing the recent austerity-driven preference for staycations revert to traditional demand for foreign holidays, something the budget airlines EasyJet and Ryanair can attest to given their strong passenger numbers published this week."

John Lewis brand director Paula Nickolds said there are "definite signs in the run up to the Bank Holiday weekend that there is plenty of pent-up demand for us to target in September."

An infograph from Retail Week shows the breakdown of the slump as follows: fashion sales by 0.9% and home sales by 0.4%. The biggest decrease however was from electrical, which is by 9.3%, which John Lewis blames on Bank Holiday coming late this year and the abnormal rush on vacuums last year because of a new European legislation.

The director of retail intelligence at Ipsos Retail Performance, Dr Tim Denison, said that the decrease of footfall was definitely a surprise "especially following such a busy July."

But he also said "it is in no way a reflection of the public's economic mood and wellbeing. All such data shows that the consumer economy continues to march forward with confidence. During August it may have even improved, with volatility in the financial markets pushing back an expected interest rate rise until 2016."

On the other hand, Waitrose, a retail store owned by the John Lewis Partnership, recorded a 1.8% increase in sales despite the August weather. Their increase in sales only showed that there are still buyers who are enjoying their final weeks of summer. Sales of outdoor goods and gardening jumped at 39% and 64% respectively. Soft fruit sales also went up by 12% and prepared fruit sales increased 7%.