Retail giant The John Lewis Partnership has revealed its department store sales dived 9.7 per cent in another "difficult" week for the group – with its Bristol store among the worst performers.

The company blamed economic uncertainty and grim weather conditions at the end of the week for dragging trading at its department stores down to £57.8 million.

The store at Cribbs Causeway suffered the second biggest drop in the country at 21.4 per cent.

The worst performance came from the home department, with a fall in sales of 14.8 per cent, while the electrical department saw an 8.5 per cent slump and fashion sales were down six per cent compared to the same period last year.

Bucking the trend were handbag sales, which saw women's accessories sales increase in the week to last Saturday, according to the group.

Another boost came from higher sales of games consoles, with the company seeing its best ever Wii sales.

"The economic climate continues to be difficult, but we hope with last week's interest rate cut, together with the news of our own investments in the future in both Bluewater and Dublin and our new TV advertising campaign, we will continue to outperform a difficult market," a spokesman said.

Supermarket sales in Waitrose, also owned by the partnership, were broadly flat over the week with a slight increase of 0.6 per cent year-on-year to £76.8m.

The partnership said Waitrose sales were given a boost by strong wine promotions and Bonfire Night.

Overall, the partnership saw a 4.1 per cent drop in sales to £134.6m, compared with £140.4m in the same week last year. But the partnership said it expected the business to cope well over the festive season.

"Our progress on our customer service and availability measures should give us confidence that we are well set for the Christmas peak," it said.