On Wednesday, October 8, a fashion drop drew Black Friday–size crowds outside storefronts nationwide. Shoppers waited patiently—some caught in the rain, some arriving hours before stores opened to be one of the first people to buy. But they weren’t seeking a limited-edition Glossier sweatshirt or a Kylie Jenner lip kit. They were at Trader Joe’s.
By Thursday, October 9, some locations had sold out of the Halloween mini tote bags, available in black, orange, purple, and a multicolored option. In Manhattan, the Chelsea Trader Joe’s—situated on the cusp of a trendy residential neighborhood and the city’s fashion district—displayed ads for the totes near empty cardboard bins that had once held the loot. A tiny tote had been shoved behind dog treats in one aisle; after I put it in my cart, another shopper offered to pay me $20 to give them the $2.99 bag.
Trader Joe’s launched reusable canvas shopping bags in 1977, but it wasn’t until much more recently that they became a status item. The store started selling the mini version in February 2024, and a spring-themed series in pastels released this past April reportedly sold out within hours. The petite bags have been deemed collector’s items and resold on eBay for more than $100. On TikTok, Lucy Kigathi documented her own “insane” journey at a Trader Joe’s in Katy, TX, when the pastel totes dropped in April. “If you got one, you almost got a part of social media history that you’ll live to show and tell one day. It’s a documented feeling, a trend that you just had to be there to experience,” Kigathi says in an email. “You throw away any logic of why there’s a line for mini totes and you just want to be in the trend, whatever it may be.”
These tiny totes are almost akin to a Birkin, at least in terms of return on investment. It’s no wonder that certain Trader Joe’s locations have instated limits on how many bags customers can buy.
Why are they such a big deal? Maybe because they’re teeny—so little it’s difficult to actually, you know, put many groceries in them. “When it comes to our reusable bags, our customers have made themselves abundantly clear: The smaller the tote, the bigger the sensation!” the official Trader Joe’s website says in a listing for the Trick-or-Treat Mini Canvas Totes. (Shoppers can’t actually buy the 13-by-11-by-6-inch vessels there; they can only add them to a wishlist.) Or maybe it’s that they manage to hit a certain capitalist sweet spot. “The Trader Joe’s mini tote bag is really a perfect storm of internet culture meets everyday consumerism,” Social Currency podcast host Sammi Tannor Cohen tells Vanity Fair. “It taps into the psychology of scarcity—something familiar suddenly feels exclusive. When you pair that with the Trader Joe’s brand, which has this cult-like accessibility and nostalgic Americana aesthetic, it becomes irresistible online.”
It’s a phenomenon that’s emerged over and over, particularly in the last few years. The “mayhem in stores mirrors what we’ve seen with sneaker drops or Stanley cups,” says Cohen. “People love the thrill of owning something that feels ordinary yet suddenly elevated by the internet.”
It helps that Trader Joe’s already has a strong brand identity, winning fans not only for its groceries but also for its playful product names and welcoming vibe. Natasha Fischer, whose “obsession” with the company inspired her to launch a blog called Trader Joe’s List in 2008, says the mini totes are built to appeal to the company’s “loyal fan base.” Trader Joe’s “doesn’t feel like a grocery store—it feels like a local farmers market, but with much more reasonable prices,” Fischer tells Vanity Fair. That atmosphere breeds allegiance—and means that when there’s a drop such as the Halloween totes, TJ customers show up.
Lisa Sokolowski, who cowrites the blog Drugstore Divas, hyped the Halloween tote release on X, knowing her readers would be clamoring for details on which stores still had the bags in stock. Sokolowski says the parking lot at her regular store in Wilmington, North Carolina, which didn’t enforce a bag limit, was full “like the mall at Christmas” on October 8.
The turnout is especially impressive considering that Trader Joe’s didn’t hype up the bags outside of its own stores before they were released. “Trader Joe’s doesn’t do any advertising,” says the Seattle-based creator behind That’s My Bookshelf, an anonymous craft account on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. “The love of Trader Joe’s and interest in new items stems from word of mouth. And apart from their staples, once their seasonal items are gone you never know if they are coming back the following year or gone for good. People probably felt the same way about these totes. Scarcity makes it seem more valuable and coveted.”
Their rarity gives the trend an international dimension as well. Sokolowski notes that Trader Joe’s totes have become a staple of Japan’s “Amerikajin” fashion trend; she stocked up on Halloween mini totes so she’d have souvenirs from the States for her Japanese relatives. “I think in Japan, specifically, they’re more popular than in the US,” Sokolowski says of the mini totes. “There aren’t any Trader Joe’s in Japan, so getting a limited-edition tote is really an exclusive club to be a part of. They’re definitely more coveted there.”
Social Currency creator Cohen credits Trader Joe’s for having “unintentionally built a lifestyle brand”—though limited-edition drops like the Halloween totes imply that its brand-building is becoming more deliberate. (A corporate representative for the chain hasn’t responded to a request for comment.) The canvas mini tote is a “cultural accessory,” Cohen says, not merely a collectible akin to Labubu dolls—though Cohen sees intriguing parallels and differences between the totes and those toys, which may be 2025’s premiere internet-driven trend.
“They’re actually two sides of the same cultural coin,” she says. “Labubu dolls are about maximalism, collector’s items, and identity. They’re emotional, almost art pieces. The Trader Joe’s mini totes, on the other hand, are more about ironic minimalism—they’re functional, inexpensive, and blend the aesthetic of everyday life with trend culture. From a fashion standpoint, the tote has more staying power because it’s wearable and practical, and these totes will stick around longer than the current Labubu craze will.”
Just don’t try to pile trends on trends by putting a Labubu in your mini tote. According to Trader Joe’s List founder Fischer, the darker multicolor shades can bleed dye onto those hard-won figurines.
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The post Tiny, Scarce, and Wildly Popular: How Trader Joe’s Mini Totes Became the New Labubus appeared first on Vanity Fair.
