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Washington Bureau Chief
Trader Joe’s shoppers are visiting the stores in droves to purchase the viral $2.99 mini tote bag, which has just been restocked.
Earlier this year, the food market conglomerate released a line of miniature canvas shopping bags designed like their emblem grocery totes in red, green, and yellow. Within days, the limited-edition product sold out with excited buyers grabbing multiple bags after seeing the hype on TikTok and Instagram. At one point, store workers were asked to limit the number of bags sold to single customers.
Packs of people swarming the aisles of the market, scouring for the mini canvas bags, were filmed and shared online. Once the bags were eventually sold out, some buyers listed theirs for up to $500 on resale sites.
“To be clear, we neither condone nor support the reselling of our products and do all we can to stop the practice,” the company said in an official statement at the time.
Now, Trader Joe’s is feeding the masses with these bags yet again, prompting even longer lines and packed stores. On Wednesday (September 19), a Trader Joe’s representative told USA Today: “The totes are a limited product rather than an everyday product at this time.” This meant that interested consumers should act fast if they want to get their hands on the high-demand item.
In one TikTok video, a crowd of shoppers can be seen frantically passing around the totes as others walk past with baskets of them. Rather than filling their carts with the store’s famed fall specials or frozen food, customers are loading up on the canvas carriers.
Some commenters questioned why some stores are allowing shoppers to buy an unlimited number of bags while others have implemented a two-tote rule.
“Omg, there was no limit?! That’s insane! At mine it was two bags per person,” one TikTok user wrote.
Another said: “My store did four per household. Like maintained itself and was very well organized.”
“They had a limit of 1 per color here, the line was long but moved super-fast,” an experienced shopper noted.
Videos on X/Twitter expose the madness outside the stores with people lined up ahead of their local store openings, hoping to be the first to get their hands on the bags.
It’s unclear how many bags are for sale this year or how long stocks will last.
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