Trader Joe’s Mini Tote Bag: Why It Has Captured the Hearts of Women Everywhere

The It bag of the moment is cute and affordable. You can buy it while stocking up on milk. Yes, it’s the Trader Joe’s Mini Tote Bag.

Trader Joe’s, the beloved California grocery chain, has had plenty of viral moments in its past, but the current hype for its mini tote bags in pastel colors has truly taken the cake. Women are lining up outside stores to score one, the bags are reselling online, and TikTok has been flooded with content devoted to the bag.

But why has this humble $2.99 bag, ostensibly intended to carry produce, turned into such a status symbol? We attempt to explain, and hear from some of its fans itself, in this edition of TL;DR.

Give me the TL;DR.

A reusable shopping tote sold by Trader Joe’s has become the hottest bag on the internet, going viral on social media and leading to pandemonium in stores.

Wait, I need more. What’s the background here?

The classic Trader Joe’s tote bag has, in our humble opinion, always been kind of a slay. With its canvas body, blue handles, pockets on both sides, and low price point (under $5), we at Glamour even predicted in 2023 it would soon usurp the New Yorker tote as the ultimate cool-girl way to carry your laptop around.

But even we couldn’t have predicted the fervor surrounding the mini version of the bag, which the chain introduced last year. First, they did so in the more classic colors, like the original blue, yellow, red, and forest green. But then they dropped the ultimate: mini totes in an array of adorable pastel hues.

“Last year, when we introduced our Mini Canvas Totes, we were so pleasantly surprised by their rapturous reception that we’re bringing in even more Mini Totes, this time in a series of Pastel shades to herald the beginning of spring,” the company said in its announcement of the totes. The four colors are pink, purple, light blue, and light green.

Well, chaos ensued.

According to The New York Times, the bags soon went viral, with customers in Sacramento lining up at 5 a.m. to score one (they sold out in 15 minutes). And according to other reports, they are being sold online for potentially hundreds of dollars, although as of now you can get one for about $20 on Poshmark.

One tote fan, Ketana Chadalavada, tells me that she ended up buying hers secondhand via Facebook Marketplace because of the insane lines to score one IRL (and she documented the process on TikTok).

“I live in Southern California, so it’s basically sold out everywhere, and the lines I’ve seen were at least 100 people long. It didn’t make sense for me to wait,” she says. She says that she was definitely influenced by seeing all the fervor online.

“I think the virality of it and supply and demand definitely made it more enticing for me,” she says.

But as big as the totes are at stores, they’re even bigger on the internet. On TikTok women are sharing all about the totes, from where to score one to showing off their hauls, even to bedazzling or customizing them.

Why are people so into these tote bags?

Well, for one, they are just cute and functional. What more could you want in a bag, really?

Grace Wong documented her journey to find the bag on TikTok, even reaching out to her church group to see if someone would stand in line for her to get it. She tells me that she thinks another big reason the bags popped off is because they are perfect for kids around Easter and can serve many different purposes.

“These tote bags also serve as a great blank canvas to personalize with embroidered initials, flowers, fruits, anything you want,” she says. “Functionally, the bag actually spreads to a good size at the bottom, allowing you to fit more than you can imagine into it.”

She adds that she’s a huge fan of the brand because Trader Joe’s always has high-quality items. And that may also be a factor driving the bag’s virality—Chadalavada says her own status as a stan of TJ’s made her more intrigued by the bag.

“I also love the colors, and I do really like the design,” she says. “And feeling like it was limited-edition made me feel like I had to get my hands on it.”

So it seems like a beloved brand plus artificial scarcity plus an admittedly cute set of colors is the secret recipe to viral success. And in the age of $10 eggs, who doesn’t want to buy into a trend that can only cost you (if you’re lucky) less than $3?

What should I tell my friends about this?

Send them a photo of your Trader Joe’s Mini Tote Bag if and when you score one, and watch them turn pastel green with envy.