Trader Joe's began selling its Summer Fun Mini Insulated Totes on May 20, with shoppers lining up outside locations before opening to secure one of the $3.99 bags.
The collection comes in six designs: blue-and-green stripes, red-and-pink stripes, and four two-toned colorways — lime green with a blue zipper, orange with a green zipper, ice blue with a pink zipper, and violet with a pink zipper, the company said. A zipper top and two reinforced handles are among the bag's construction details, and its capacity reaches 1.5 gallons, USA Today reported. As with previous drops, stores are limiting the number of bags each customer can purchase, according to NBC Bay Area.
Customers were seen forming lines Wednesday morning outside a Trader Joe's location in Fremont, California, ahead of the release.
The Summer Fun collection is the latest chapter in a tote bag phenomenon that began when Trader Joe's Mini Canvas Tote Bags first went viral in March 2024. Those bags, priced at $2.99, sold out at most locations within hours of hitting shelves, and sets of four later appeared on eBay at prices approaching $1,000. Subsequent releases — a Halloween edition, a spring pastel run, and a smaller micro variant — each prompted queues outside stores and rapid sell-throughs.
The insulated totes have their own precedent: a 2024 version of the bag was depleted at many stores within a single day, and pairs surfaced on resale platforms for as much as $155. Trader Joe's distanced itself from the resale activity at the time, saying it does not support the reselling of its merchandise.
The secondary market appeal has reached beyond U.S. borders. Because Trader Joe's operates no stores outside the United States, buyers abroad have turned to platforms including eBay, Depop, Mercari, and others, where resale prices have at times exceeded $1,000, according to USA Today.
A striped mini canvas tote is also in the pipeline for summer, though the grocer has yet to share pricing or a release date.