Spike of Vimto Sales During Ramadan

Ramadan begin this week and with it, saw an unusual trend – an increase in sales of Vimto.

The holy month of Ramadan is a Muslim tradition which involves fasting and abstaining from food, drink, smoking and having sex from sunrise to sunset. The connection to Vimto therefore doesn’t seem to be immediately apparent.

However, more than half of all sales of the cordial take place during Ramadan, and the drink is prominent in the UK and the Middle East. Manchester imam Asad Zaman proposed that the rise in Vimto sales could be attributed to the sweet nature of the drink: “after a day of fasting your stomach has collapsed and your body is really low on energy.”

Additionally, the Vimto sold in the Gulf is sweeter than the version found in the UK. A representative from Vimto states that this is a relic of Historical production, when it was “easier and cheaper to ship highly concentrated syrup, rather than sending water round the world.”

Economics applicants should consider how other trends in consumer goods mirror religious holidays, while HSPS applicants should investigate how mass trends of behaviour emerge, such as this Vimto consumption or trends in belief and thought.