The shopping apocalypse: Big retail names continue to struggle amid warnings of worst year on record

John Lewis and M&S contributed to the lake of tears, but Tesco provided a few crumbs of comfort on the industry’s Terrible Thursday, writes James Moore

Enough with the skinny jeans! M&S was in the stock market’s doghouse after its Christmas update (iStock)

Welcome to the retail apocalypse. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) decried 2019 as “the worst year on record for retail” as both John Lewis and M&S added to the sector’s lake of tears on Terrible Thursday.

Get your brollies ready; we’ll start with John Lewis. The high-street survivor, owned by its workforce and accustomed to the love and largesse of a prosperous middle class clientele, unveiled a profit warning and announced the shock departure of John Lewis MD Paula Nickolds. She’d been expected to take a high-profile role following the merger of the executive teams running the department stores, the online business and Waitrose, but is now in search of pastures new.

The partnership’s struggles mean that the staff who remain may have to do without their customary bonus. The final decision will be in hands of Sharon White, the former to civil servant, who’s preparing to take over as chair, but the ground has been prepped.