Bristol has 'worst performing' John Lewis
Sales at the Cribbs Causeway store dropped 21 per cent in the week to December 27 - the biggest fall of the group's 28 UK branches.
Overall, group trading for the company was up 1.2 per cent with sales at John Lewis in Manchester up by 19.4 per cent, with Oxford Street showing a rise of 14.4 per cent.
John Hayes, managing director of the Cribbs Causeway John Lewis blamed the poor performance on traffic problems around Cribbs on the Monday before Christmas.
Some drivers queued for four hours as they left the Mall and nearby retail parks, as roads struggle to cope with inbound and outbound shoppers.
Mr Hayes said: "Messages on the radio and TV urged drivers to stay away on the Monday, which we think rubbed off on to the following day as people feared they'd get stuck and were put off coming."
He added that sales this week so far at his branch are up 12 per cent on last year.
The Bristol branch, which has 1,000 staff at its Christmas peak, has suffered a run of poor trading since September - the same month that the Cabot Circus development opened in the centre of Bristol.
Richard Bonner, operations manager for John Lewis at Cribbs said: "We believe the opening of Cabot has only affected our performance by only a few percentage points as it still has a novelty value for people.
"People may be going there but when I've been I've seen very few people with shopping bags."
Danny Cox, retail analyst at Bristol stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown said: "There are a lot of competing sales out there at the moment, especially as Woolworths closes down.
"But I think the figures show there is an issue of location for John Lewis.
"People are keen to have a look at the new Cabot Circus - if you put a new shopping centre into a town, it's bound to have an effect."
John Lewis said sales at its supermarket chain Waitrose soared 40.6% to £111.3 million after the grocery chain enjoyed its best-ever trading day on December 23.
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