Department store group John Lewis has seen its best week of the half year so far, with sales up 8.4% on last year.

Given the relatively warm weather, fashion “did well” to register a positive set of figures, with childrenswear increasing 18%.

Home also grew on the year, with double-digit increases in Lighting coupled with strong growth from gifting assortments, suggesting that customers are beginning to prepare their homes for Christmas earlier than they did last year.
Meanwhile another “fantastic” week of trading at Waitrose saw total sales (excluding petrol) rise by 9.3% compared to the same week last year.

BBC Two's The Great British Bake Off continued to impact on sales, with sales of its Opera cake increasing 37% on last year after the dessert was featured on the programme.