Sales at John Lewis, the department store group and high street bellwether, plunged by 14 per cent last week, in one of the retailer's worst trading periods in recent history.

The John Lewis Partnership also revealed today that sales at Waitrose, its upmarket supermarket chain, also suffered significantly, with trade tumbling by 4.6 per cent - the group's worst result for the year to date.

Today's figures will cast further doubt on the reliability of data published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which revealed retail sales fell by 0.1 per cent in October, far below the 0.9 per cent decline forecast by leading economists.

John Lewis is considered a leading indicator of high street sentiment and although today's figures are for the week to November 15, and the ONS statistics reflected trade in October, the department store also reported dire revenues last month.

Towards the end of October, sales at John Lewis fell by 9.8 per cent, its worst performance this year until today's figures emerged. Earlier this week, the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said that the total value of retail sales in the UK fell for the first time in three years.

The BRC sales monitor for October showed that like-for-like sales were down 2.2 per cent and total sales fell 0.1 per cent, marking the first annual drop since April 2005.

Yesterday, Marks & Spencer held a one-day "20 per cent off" sale in a bid to boost pre-Christmas sales, joining other retailers such as Debenhams who are battling to lure cash-strapped consumers through their doors.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight said: "Retailers will be desperately hoping that the recent slashing of interest rates from 4.5 per cent to 3 per cent by the Bank of England, the prospect of another large interest rate cut in December and the apparent imminent announcement of tax cuts by the Government will give a significant boost to sales over the vital Christmas shopping period."

But he added: "Nevertheless, we suspect that retailers still face a very difficult Christmas period, and life looks likely to remain tough for some considerable time thereafter."

In a defiant statement, Barry Matheson, head of selling development at John Lewis, said the stores were well presented and stocked, but said: "...we are not immune from the reality of the economic crisis that grasps every headline, and that is reflected in last week's result."

At Waitrose, sales of alcohol were strong last week, in particular, whiskey, cider and speciality lager while trade in meat was also buoyant.

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