Going by the early indications, there is a notable pre-Christmas shopping boom in the UK this year, with British shoppers spending abundantly, defying both the cold weather as well as the economic conditions!

John Lewis department stores’ chain claims to have witnessed an unparalleled pre-Christmas shoppers’ explosion, with the stores having surpassed £100 million sales for the third week in a row. Over the last week alone, the John Lewis stores registered a whopping £112 million in sales – indicating a 15.5 percent increase from the same-week last year sales numbers, and an 11.4 percent increase from 2007.

According to a statement by a spokeswoman of the 29-store John Lewis chain, with the freezing conditions spreading, “sales of outwear, hats, scarves and earmuffs have rocketed, while gift foods, electronic games and traditional board games continue to break records.”

Furthermore, the John Lewis online sales are also up form last year, by 7 percent; and even the sales at the group’s food outlet, Waitrose, last week showed a 16.3 percent increase, with organic turkey sales rising 60 percent and free-range goose up 32 per cent.

Noting that the pre-Christmas shopping mood is noticeably upbeat this year, the New West End Company, which surveys over 600 traders in central London, has said that the overall sales are expectedly up by almost 10 percent, vis-à-vis last year.