John Lewis's 32% leap in weekly sales

The partnership – seen by many as a bellwether for the retail sector – was helped by weak takings a year ago when much of the UK was gridlocked by heavy snow.

Still, overall sales at the group's 28 department stores, one John Lewis at Home store, and internet shopping business, increased to 48.9 million in the week to 6 February, compared with the equivalent week in 2009.

There were strong showings at two of the three Scottish department stores, with Aberdeen leading the way with a 12.7 per cent hike, while Edinburgh rose 11.4 per cent, year-on-year. However, the Glasgow branch suffered a 0.4 per cent dip in sales.

Nat Wakely, director of selling operations at John Lewis, said: "A terrific start to (John Lewis's] new financial year ... To a large extent this was to be expected, with the heavy snowfalls in week one of last year. That said, it was by any measure a strong week in its own right against any week in February last year.

"All bar four branches made it to double-digit increases, with only Glasgow, which was also affected by snow this year, not crossing the line."

The performance, which was John Lewis' fourth straight week of rising sales, will add to the cloudy picture on the current strength of UK consumer spending.

On Tuesday, an industry survey said British retailers suffered their worst January in at least 15 years.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, the forecasting group, said: "Despite the robust John Lewis performance, we continue to suspect that the upside for consumer spending will be limited in 2010 as households face still very challenging conditions, notably including high unemployment, still markedly falling full-time employment, low earnings growth, high debt levels, and January's VAT hike."

John Lewis also owns the 223-store Waitrose supermarket chain – which has two stores in Edinburgh and one in Glasgow.

Week to 6 February sales at Waitrose increased 9 per cent to 87.6m, reinforcing the chain's current position as the UK's fastest growing grocer.

Sales were driven by early Valentine's Day purchases, with sales of Valentine's-themed cupcakes up 54 per cent on last year and sales of chocolate hearts up 47 per cent.

Richard Hodgson, Waitrose's commercial director, said: "It seems people are also thinking of the producers behind their Valentine's gifts, as the best-selling new Valentine's product this year so far has been Divine Fairtrade chocolate hearts."