What's going on?

British retailer John Lewis announced on Thursday that it made a loss in the first half of this year.

What does this mean?

John Lewis makes a lot of its money by flogging big-ticket items to middle-class shoppers, but those loyal shoppers aren�t so loyal now that bills for energy and other essentials are on the up. Those that did have spare change used it to escape reality by booking holidays and fancy restaurants�instead, which might explain why like-for-like sales at John Lewis department stores grew just 3% in the first half of this year from the same period last year. Even sales at John Lewis-owned Waitrose � a high-end grocery chain � dropped 5%, as its little luxuries-seeking shoppers flocked to discount competitors like Aldi and Lidl. Layer in the company�s altruistic reluctance to fully push higher costs onto its customers, and the employee-owned group notched a $114 million loss in the first six months of the year.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Happy holidays.
John Lewis�s sales tend to change with the seasons, and losses in the first half of the year are pretty common. But this dip more than tripled last year�s, and it looks like the retail giant is banking on festive sales to make up the gap. John Lewis plans to hire 10,000 temporary staff to help it make the most of seasonal demand, but that�ll only work if demand�s actually there: UK inflation fell for the first time since September 2021 last month, sure, but it�s still sitting at a shopping-blocking 9.9%.

Zooming out: Good old American positivity.
Inflation in the US isn�t much better, but American shoppers are a hardy bunch: consumer sentiment in the country rose from historic lows last month after a slip in energy prices. That might be why stateside retail sales were up 0.3% in August from the month before, washing away economists� worries of a 0.1% fall.