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High street feels a slowdown in spending
By Susanna Voyle, Retail Correspondent
Published: December 27 2002 20:39 | Last Updated: December 27 2002 20:39


Signs of a slowdown in festive consumer spending emerged on Friday as the first retailers announced Christmas sales figures. Both John Lewis, the department store group, and Goldsmiths, the jewellers, reported broadly flat turnover in the run up to Christmas. Jessops, the camera retailer, reported a 9.4 per cent sales increase, driven by strong demand for digital cameras. However, last year's growth was 13 per cent. The news comes amid increasing signs that consumer confidence is falling and will continue to do so next year, leading to fears of an economic downturn. After a bumper Christmas in 2001, continued spending on the high street has propped up the economy through most of this year. John Lewis said trading over Christmas had been "good, but not great". The week to December 21 was flat, with a sales increase of just 0.1 per cent. However, the period between Sunday December 22 and Christmas eve was stronger than expected. As a result, sales for the month to December 24 rose by 4.3 per cent.
Goldsmiths said sales for the four weeks to Christmas eve rose by 1.1 per cent. But, on the like-for-like basis that strips out the effects of new store openings, there was no increase. Jurek Piasecki, Goldsmiths' chairman, said: "December started very slowly. But, with a late rush on the two days before Christmas, much of the deficit was clawed back. We consider this year's result to be extremely creditable in a tough retail environment." Jessops said its overall sales in the four weeks to December 24 rose by 24.2 per cent, with a 9.4 per cent like-for-like increase. "We have proved that if you have the products that capture the imagination, then consumers are willing to spend," said Derek Hine, chief executive. According to the FootFall Index there was an 11.3 per cent fall in shopper numbers on Christmas eve compared with last year. Both the week and the weekend before Christmas were down significantly. But FootFall said that when sales began on Boxing day, shopper numbers rose by 8.6 per cent over last year.