John Lewis has blamed its latest fall in sales on anxious students waiting for exam results and the nation’s fixation with the Olympics.

The department store chain said sales fell 4.2 per cent last week after shoppers stayed at home to follow Britain's gold medal push in Beijing. The group, which has 26 branches, described trading as subdued after it took £47.16 million in the week to last Saturday.

The fall in sales compared with a 9.3 per cent improvement seen in the previous week, when John Lewis said trading was boosted by favourable weather conditions. This is the tenth week out of 15 that sales have fallen as British shoppers have cut back on spending because of higher fuel, food and mortgage costs.

The company's flagship London Oxford Street outlet produced the best trading performance of last week, with sales ahead 6 per cent on a year earlier. In contrast, out-of-town stores had a poor time with Bluewater down 14.6 per cent, Brent Cross down 12.1 per cent and Milton Keynes down 18.2 per cent.

Fashion sales were 1.3 per cent higher in the period. The group said that women's shoes, along with premium and self-select beauty, also proved popular.

The group’s children's department saw a straight set of increases above 10 per cent for nursery, babywear and girlswear. However, electricals and home technology declined by 5.3 per cent and homewares fell 9.4 per cent.

At Waitrose, John Lewis's upmarket supermarket chain, sales rose 2.3 per cent to £72.4 million, despite high food price inflation.

“More changeable weather this week should help encourage an increase in shopping activity and this, coupled with the arrival of plenty of new autumn stock, will certainly provide plenty of inspiration and choice,” said a John Lewis spokesman.

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