With the help of Biscuit the animatronic dog, John Lewis smashes sales record as Christmas shoppers defy recession

Signs of strong Christmas spending on the High Street were revealed today as department store John Lewis said it had set a new all-time weekly sales record.

The retailer saw sales of £110million in the period to Saturday, smashing the record achieved in the previous week.

Gift-buying stepped up a gear, with fashion, watches and sewing machines all snapped up by festive shoppers. Gaming and toys were also seeing their traditional Christmas surge, with Biscuit the animatronic dog proving a favourite for the store.

A consumer fightback against the recession appears to be gathering pace elsewhere too with a greater number of shoppers visiting major retail stores than this time last year.

A young girl with Biscuit the animatronic dog who has proved a surprise hit for John Lewis. There were signs of a consumer fightback against the recession across the country

Shoppers flood the length of London's Oxford Street as traders braced themselves for one of the busiest weekends of the retail year. In Central London, more than £120million is expected to be spent by the end of today
Capital Shopping Centres (CSC), responsible for some of the UK's largest retail outlets, including the Metrocentre in Gateshead and Braehead in Glasgow, said footfall through its stores was up on last year's figure.
The number of people visiting the centres was up 3 per cent for the year to date in 2009, with more than seven million shoppers flocking to CSC's 14 centres in the past week alone.
Trevor Pereira, commercial director at CSC, said: 'Sales of traditional favourites - electrical goods, perfume sets, CDs and DVD - remain popular Christmas items.
'The pace of shopping is steady across the whole of the UK, and as ever, we expect late shopping surges over the next two weekends before Christmas.'
This weekend is expected to be one of the busiest in the retail year as millions flock to high street stores and out of town shopping centres.
In Central London, where more than £120million is expected to be spent by the end of today, people were seen queueing outside stores as they waited for doors to open.
At John Lewis large household purchases were also seeing 'incredible growth', particularly in fitted kitchens.
Overall, sales were more than 8 per cent up on John Lewis's biggest seven days in 2007, which until last week had been its all-time record.
Director of operational development Andrew Murphy said: 'It is very exciting to be breaking records week after week.
"The atmosphere in our branches is very festive as across the country people are out Christmas shopping, even men, although I am sure there will still be many who leave it until the last minute.'


source: dailymail.co.uk