Why does John Lewis's boss have mixed feelings about Black Friday when it delivered record sales?

Black Friday delivered record sales for John Lewis - so why does its managing director have "mixed feelings" about it as an event?

Christmas time is make or break for retailers. What they want is brisk, steady spending all the way through to Christmas.

What they got, thanks to Black Friday, was a huge and unprecedented peak in demand on November 28th (four weeks before Christmas) that left John Lewis stretched and the likes of M&S and Debenhams struggling to deliver.

Andy Street insists Black Friday wasn't necessarily great for consumers either.

John Lewis' "never knowingly undersold" policy means they regularly monitor what their competitors’ prices and pledge to match them.

According to Andy Street, while shoppers undoubtedly benefited from rock bottom prices on the day, thereafter the discounting was less aggressive than in previous years.

Shoppers at a Asda store in Wembley on Black Friday. Credit: PA Wire
Thousands of people descended on shops to snap up heavily discounted deals. Credit: PA Wire

And there were those fights. Not at John Lewis but memorably at Tesco and ASDA.

"That can't be spirit about of Christmas is about, of thoughtful gifting, my personal view is that I hope that last year was a high water mark for Black Friday and we'll be very thoughtful about the discounting offer next year."

John Lewis customers have an appetite for cashmere and espresso machines, the partnership has 46 stores (Marks and Spencer has almost 800) so it represents a small and well-heeled slice of life.

None the less Andy Street says trading over Christmas "good" and that conditions were "normal", although he warns that once again John Lewis has beaten the market.

In the next few weeks M&S, Tesco, Sainsbury’s are likely to reveal Christmas for them hasn't gone quite as expected.

We've had our first casualty. The retailer Bank has gone into administration this afternoon. The business, which has 84 stores, primarily in the Midlands, North of England and Scotland and 1,555 staff, has been loss-making for several years.

Deloitte, the administrator, says "several parties... have expressed an interest in the business" and for now all stores are open as normal.