John Lewis and Waitrose sales were up last week, with big ticket items outperforming many categories.

John Lewis sales were up 1.3% to £74.12m in the week to May 13.

In the first 15 weeks of the department store chain’s financial year sales were up 1.1% compared to the previous year.

Waitrose head of shop trade, Scotland and North, Barry Matheson, said: “Home had a good week of sales, up 5.3% year-on-year. Furniture in particular performed well, up 18.1%, driven by double-digit growth across both fitted furniture and beds.

Charged electrical sales

“Electricals and home technology also saw sales growth this week, up 3.3%.

“Mobile and photography continue to perform strongly, up a huge 47.4%, with sales of GoPros performing particularly well as customers equip themselves ahead of the summer months to get the best footage on their holidays.”

Fashion sales were down 2.8% and beauty, wellbeing and leisure sales were up 8.2%.

Waitrose

At grocer Waitrose, sales were up 0.2% to £128.1m in the week to May 13. Over the 15 weeks, sales were up 1.8%.

Waitrose IT director Mike Sackman said: “Many customers chose not to cook for themselves as both our cafes and prepared meals had an excellent week.

“Hot food sales in our cafes were up nearly 12% and sales of our Indian and Chinese ready meal ranges grew by more than 8% and 27% respectively. Our ‘Love Life’ calorie-controlled dishes were also up 50%.”

Across the partnership, sales were up 0.6% to £202.2m in the week. Over the first 15 weeks, they rose 1.6%.

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