article: We take a look at some of the winners and losers on the UK high street this Christmas. UK's largest supermarket, Tesco, reported a rise in sales over Christmas. UK like-for-like sales were up 1.3% from a year earlier in the six weeks to 9 January. The upbeat results were welcomed in the City and are being seen as part of the turnaround promised by chief executive Dave Lewis, who took over in September 2014. However, the grocer still faces tough competition from discount chains, and it reported a 1.5% fall in sales for the 13 weeks ending 28 November. Britain's biggest department store chain posted an impressive 5.1% rise in like-for-like sales in the six weeks to 2 January, with products in its technology category leading the field with a rise of 9.6%. Online sales were up more than a fifth and accounted for 40% of total sales. (Like-for-like sales, which measures performance at stores open for more than 12 months, is the measure preferred by analysts as it is the most accurate picture of a retailer's performance.) Waitrose, its food retailing business, falls into the other category, however - see the Losers below. Newsagents and stationary retailer, WH Smith, reported a 2% increase in like-for-like for the 20 weeks to 16 January. Sales at its travel arm, which has shops at airports, railways stations, motorway services, and hospitals jumped by 12%.. High Street stores reported a 2% rise in like-for-like sales during the five weeks to 2 January. The business, which has been going for 224 years, said profits were boosted by the recent trend in colouring books for adults. The department store had a reasonably good Christmas, with a 3.7% rise in like-for-like sales for the nine weeks to 9 January. The retailer said it made fewer discounts and kept tight control of clothing stock, such as winter coats, to reflect the unseasonably warm winter. Like-for-like sales at the department store rose by 5.3% in the six weeks to 2 January, which chief executive Nigel Oddy said underlined its strategy of improving both stores and its online offering, and developing its in-house brands. Britain's fourth-biggest supermarket reported better-than-expected sales, with like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, up 0.2% in the nine weeks to 3 January. Analysts had expected a decline of as much as 3%, suggesting that its revival strategy is paying off. The retailer said trading over the key Christmas period was "very positive", with like-for-like sales across all its sportswear brands up 10.6% in the five weeks to 2 January. As a result, it said underlying full-year profits could be up to 10% higher than current market expectations of Â£136m. Record food sales in the run-up to Christmas was not enough to save the high street stalwart, with like-for-likes falling 2.5% in the 13 weeks to 28 December. Food was up 0.4% for the period, but general merchandise - which includes its clothing - sank by 5.8%. Neil Saunders from retail consultants Conlumino commented: "It is timid and it is wedded to this kind of 'we have to be
summary: Unseasonably warm winter weather, the inexorable rise of online shopping and consumer reluctance to pay full price has added up to a fairly dismal festive season for some retailers.