John Lewis reported another fall in weekly sales yesterday and its director of selling admitted: “It's tough out there.”

The privately owned department store chain, regarded as one of the strongest performers in the retail sector, said that sales across its stores fell by 1.3 per cent in the week to July 5, despite the launch of a clearance sale.

Sales of homewares were nearly 7percent below the same seven-day period a year ago.

Only two of the group's 24 stores registered an increase - Oxford Street in London, which includes takings from a Waitrose food hall, and its Knight & Lee store in Southsea, Hampshire.

While the sales figures were far better than the 8.3 per cent fall registered in the last week of June, they represented the eighth decline in weekly sales in the past nine weeks across the stores. Experts said that they were further evidence of the state of the high street, following the Marks & Spencer profit warning a week ago.

They added that if John Lewis was feeling the pinch, its rivals were likely to be hit even harder.

Dan Knowles, John Lewis director of selling, concurred: “It's definitely tough out there, but many of our competitors would love to have our figures and we should be proud of all that has been achieved.”

Shares in Marks & Spencer dropped by more than 6 per cent to 225p after the update, while Next fell by nearly 5 per cent. Kingfisher, the DIY group behind B&Q, tumbled by nearly 7 per cent to 92.4p.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at Global Insight, said: “We suspect that increasingly pressurised and price-conscious consumers are looking to concentrate their purchases when there are genuine bargains available in the clearance sales.

“We expect this to be an increasing feature of consumer spending going forward and we also expect many consumers to look to economise by trading down their purchases - buying more own-label brands of goods and food rather than more expensive branded products.”

John Lewis said that the amount of stock put into its clearance sale was level with a year ago and that it had no plans to extend the promotion because of the tougher climate.

Discounts on clothing range between 30 per cent to 50 per cent, while on Monday the group - known for its “never knowingly undersold” slogan - was forced to cut the price of a range of electronics to match prices in Currys.

Nat Wakeley, regional director of selling, said: “The trends really haven't changed. We are still doing very well in fashion and clothing and home remains the area that is suffering, given the state of the housing market.”

He added that sales in the current week were ahead of a year ago.

Sales at Waitrose, the John Lewis-owned supermarket chain, rose 4.6per cent in the week to July 5 as the warmer weather boosted demand for ice-cream and drinks.

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