John Lewis beats the riots with a 2.9% rise in sales
John Lewis said sales increased last week despite the looting and rioting across England.
The department store chain said sales at its stores rose by 2.9% to £52.9 million in the week to 13 August compared to the same week last year.
Fashion sales were up 1.8% and sales of Electricals and Home Technology rose 7.8%. The Home department saw an increase of 1.5%.
Of the stores, Sheffield saw the biggest rise with sales up 8.1%, followed by Poole at 7.9% and Glasgow at 6.2%.
Online sales were up 35%. Jonathon Brown, head of online selling, said:
“John Lewis online managed to pick up the customers that couldn’t or didn’t get to our shops.”
The retailer had only one store broken into during the riots – its Croydon Home store which was forced to close for a day.
Commenting on the figures Brown said: Considering the events of last week on our streets and in the financial markets it was a solid performance across the directorates and channels.”
