What John Lewis’s turnaround says about the British high street

Britain lacks a direct parallel to America’s Super Bowl commercials, but if you had to pick one, it would probably be the John Lewis Christmas advert. Each year, over the course of a two- or three-minute video, a monster, a dragon or a man on the moon is taught the meaning of Christmas, usually by small children or animals. The nation either weeps or carps that the wrong song was used for the soundtrack. And the John Lewis Partnership—which runs John Lewis, a department-store chain that sells everything from board games to bathroom fittings, and Waitrose, a posh supermarket—is reaffirmed as having a special place in middle-class Britain’s collective consciousness.