Trader Joe’s stores are usually bustling, but this week you may have noticed lines stretching around the corner as shoppers waited for their chance to snag the chain’s new Halloween tote bag.
The $2.99 bag ― available in black, green, purple and orange ― is pretty small for a grocery haul, but the chain says the tote is perfect for trick-or-treating or a day when you’re just buying a few items.
The chain’s mini canvas tote bags first went viral in 2024, and Trader Joe’s has since periodically released new versions of the coveted bags to much fanfare — and sometimes with a fight. In June, Washington, D.C.-based journalist Nicholas Ballasy captured a chaotic scene at his local Trader Joe’s, where shoppers, including some older adult customers, elbowed their way toward the latest bag. The Trader Joe’s employee supervising the tote drop eventually just moved out of the way.
“The employee was [like], ‘they don’t pay me enough for this shit,’” one man joked in the comments on the video, which racked up 5.5 million views.
The branded bag is gaining an international following, too. Tourists have been known to line up on vacation to snag one from the beloved American grocery chain as a souvenir, Fodor’s reported last month. The reporter said she has spotted the totes in Amsterdam, while other articles have documented their popularity in Japan, Korea and Singapore.
When the bags have popped up on resale sites like eBay and Depop, some sellers have had the audacity to list them for $50,000. More rational resellers have the current bags priced at two or three times their retail price, but Yahoo reports they’ve seen past totes fetch hundreds or low thousands of dollars.
Like the Stanley cup before it, the demand for this $2.99 tote bag has clearly reached full-blown craze status. How did it get this way? What’s so special about this little bag? Below, marketing experts unpack why seemingly everyone wants a three-buck tote.
It signals that you’re part of the ‘in-crowd.’
Trader Joe’s ― which operates more than 600 stores nationwide and is known for its rotating selection of unique, affordable products ― is a brand many shoppers identify with and feel a sense of ownership over, said Colleen P. Kirk, a marketing professor at the New York Institute of Technology.
The company’s selective expansion strategy also helps maintain its high-demand, cult-like status.
“Buying a Trader Joe’s tote bag is not only a way to express our own individual feelings of ownership and self-identity, but also to feel a sense of connectedness to other consumers who are also in the know,” she said.
That sense of insider knowledge can fuel what consumer behavior researchers call “psychological ownership” — when consumers come to feel that a brand is “mine,” Kirk explained. One key motivation is self-identity: Shoppers can express their frugality through their loyalty to a brand that’s both affordable and high quality.
And once consumers feel that sense of ownership, they can get a little territorial.
“The thinking goes, ‘I know Trader Joe’s better than you do because I have shopped here for years, even before it was cool, so I deserve this tote bag more than you do,’” she said.
The bag has function, sparks joy and speaks to people’s identity.
What consumers are spending money on in this economy tends to address at least one of three primary factors, according to Katie Thomas, the lead of the Consumer Institute at Kearney, a global strategy and management consulting firm: The item needs to have good utility or function, needs to bring joy, or speaks to a person’s identity.
“The Trader Joe’s bags are ultimately at the intersection of all three,” she said. “The tote is durable and useful to carry lunches and other items; affordable collectibles are ways to bring simple joy; and it speaks to ‘who they are,’” she said. “I’ve seen so many cool Gen Zers in New York City carrying their lunch and other daily items ― a great example of utility meets identity.”
Some fans customize their bags with detailed paint, buttons and embroidery designs to really express their identity.
There’s a limited number of totes available, so they’re considered exclusive.
International travelers are willing to wait in obscene lines on vacation, or shell out $100 online, in part because Trader Joe’s doesn’t operate abroad and has become a “cool” American brand, much like In-N-Out Burger. The bag’s exclusivity is built in.
Even if you do live in the States, the totes are only available for a limited time, so there’s a sense of urgency and a product scarcity model at play. Some stores cap customers at four or five bags to deter the more rabid resellers.
“The exclusivity makes buyers feel special or unique, and gives them something to talk about or a story to tell,” Thomas said.
Some people genuinely enjoy the camaraderie of waiting in crazy long lines.
It’s hard to believe, but there are people in this world who genuinely enjoy waiting in line with others at 7 a.m. on a weekday. We’ve seen it plenty of times before, said Lars Perner, a marketing professor at the University of Southern California.
“In the past, people have often camped out in front of stores to get new iPhone versions right when they are released even though a plentiful supply would be available to those shopping a few days later,” Perner told HuffPost.
Here, “the motivation for waiting in line is people wanting to participate in the experience of lining up with others ― the camaraderie of that ― and being among the first buyers,” Perner said.
We’re ‘monkey see, monkey do’ when it comes to buying things like the Stanley cup and mini totes.
The local network news stories about the totes and the viral videos showing the massive lines draw even more people in.
“People who have not thought about lining up before may come to think of this as the ‘cool thing to do,’” Perner said.
The Trader Joe’s totes are an example of the phenomenon of “social proof.”
“Meaning, many become inspired by seeing what a lot of others are doing,” he said. “It’s the same reason people may select the restaurant with the longest lines, figuring that others know what is best.”
Buying things, especially in-demand things, gives us a sense of control.
People are also strongly motivated by a desire to feel control of their world, Kirk said, and there has been so much in the media lately about things consumers can’t control: the economy, artificial intelligence doomerism, wars in distant places.
“When we feel a loss of control, we often compensate by wanting to exert control in other places and in other ways,” she said.
One way people do that, she said, is through something called “compensatory consumption”: when life feels a little out of their control, they may turn to things they can control — namely, what they buy. Acquiring goods that feel like an extension of themselves can give people a little boost of efficacy and self-esteem, helping restore that sense of control.
Given the state of the economy, people are hungry for a nicely priced status item.
While consumers are expressing real concern about their financial futures, Thomas said many are continuing to spend on the things that help them enjoy life now.
“In the past, uncertainty often prompted people to pull back and preserve flexibility,” she said. “Today, the uncertainty feels so persistent and so difficult to plan around that it can produce the opposite response: a willingness to keep living, spending and finding moments of enjoyment rather than putting life on hold for a future that feels impossible to predict.”
With its “it’s cool to be frugal” social cache, shopping at Trader Joe’s could also be seen as a form of “accessible affluence” — offering the trappings of specialty shopping, from truffle-infused popcorn to fancy cheeses, and coveted totes, at everyday, budget-friendly prices.
And lastly, resellers are driving up the demand.
It’s worth keeping in mind that the lines, and sometimes even the elbowing in the store we’ve seen in viral videos, often involve resellers. When stores don’t limit how many items customers can buy, the earliest people in line may be there to stock up, only to have the totes posted online at a hefty markup just hours later.
Thomas joked, “Late-stage capitalism at work!”