USC students wait for hours in the seemingly never-ending line toward the USC Village Trader Joe’s, but this time, it’s not for eggs.
The popular grocery store chain, known for its reasonable prices and friendly checkout crew, is selling its beloved mini canvas tote bags in four new pastel colors for spring.
The reusable bags cost $2.99 and are available in delicate pink, baby blue, mint green and lovely lavender. When Trader Joe’s first introduced the mini totes — which come in at 13 inches long, 11 inches tall and 6 inches wide — they became an overnight sensation and sold out almost immediately.
“When it comes to our reusable bags, our customers have made themselves abundantly clear: the smaller the tote, the bigger the sensation,” Trader Joe’s wrote on its website.
For many, size was a major part of the bags’ appeal.
Carlos Bruno, a retail management storage associate and self-proclaimed Trader Joe’s fan, said he had already purchased 12 bags from two other stores for his mom and sisters.
“I like the size because they’re usable to carry out lunch and eat, and [carrying] small essential things,” Bruno said. “It’s gonna be like little travel bags.”
Chantal Corona, a junior majoring in health and human science, said she uses the small totes for everyday essentials.
“I have one from when they first dropped, and I use it as my makeup bag,” Corona said. “I just like something a little small to take it traveling or put it in the car for emergency stuff.”
Bags at the USC Village Trader Joe’s have been available for purchase since yesterday in timed drops. On Thursday, bags were released at 9 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. with a limit of one bag per color per person.
Corona got to the store at 11 a.m. and waited another half an hour after the noon drop to purchase a tote.
“Purple is my favorite color, and having a mini tote bag is aesthetically cute,” Corona said. “The colors themselves are making a comeback.”
Autumn Clodt, a sophomore majoring in communications, said she wanted a pink bag for her mother.
“My mom keeps sending me the tote bags and she really wanted one,” Clodt said. “I thought this was a perfect Mother’s Day gift.”
For many people, seeing floods of pictures of these bags and the lines of people waiting for them on social media makes the trend hard to resist.
Mason Bracket, a luxury retail worker, said he already bought a couple of bags when there were no limits during the first release, and was coming back to get more.
“I actually recorded a video of all the people in line, then I posted it on Tiktok and that’s how I started seeing all the traction,” Bracket said. “Everybody was camping out. I would never do that, but somebody camped out at, like, 2, 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning to get these bags.”
Rachel Chen, a USC graduate student studying communications management, said she waited in line for three hours and was there because the bags were trending online.
“We were here at 9 a.m., but the bags sold out immediately. So we are waiting here for the 12 o’clock line,” Chen said. “When you’re scrolling on social media, many people are buying it, then my friends are buying it too, and it’s really cheap, so I buy it because of the trend.”
According to a report from The Economist, it’s unclear how long the chain will continue to sell the product. Only local store staff know how many bags each location has in stock.