16th Dec 09
John Lewis records surge in Christmas shopping
by Harry Oldfield
Indications of strong Christmas spending in the High Street have come to light as department store John Lewis reports it had set a new all-time weekly sales record.
The retailer recorded sales of £110 million in the period to Saturday, smashing records achieved last week.
Christmas gift-buying stepped up a notch, with fashion, watches and sewing machines all snapped up by holiday season shoppers.
Toys and video games were also seeing their traditional Christmas increase, with Biscuit the animatronic dog, proving to be a favourite for the store.
Overall, sales were up by more than 8 per cent on the chain’s biggest seven days in 2007, which until lsat week had been its all time record.
However the stampede to the stores would start in earnest this week, as analysts predicting that prices will fall dramatically before Christmas.
Last-minute Christmas shoppers are likely to get the biggest reductions as stores hold out as long as possible to offer the deepest discounts.
Stores on High Street are braced for this coming weekend to be their busiest period, while many more shoppers are anticipated to hit the stores on Boxing Day.
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