Sorry to Zendaya’s Mugler robosuit and Beyoncé’s cowboy hat, but it turns out the defining fashion item of 2024 is a three dollar supermarket tote. If you happen to live in the US, and were thinking of scampering down to one of the country’s 571 Trader Joe’s for your weekly shop, then be warned: you may be met by a scene of utter despair. Scrambles. Tussles. Some are even saying pulled hair! The Average American Consumer is frothing at the mouth to procure one of the supermarket’s newly released canvas tote bags, and – as always – TikTok is here to document it all.

“These mfs wildin over a mini tote bag,” captioned one video, as staff wheeled a tote-stacked trolley into a crowd of exhilarated teenagers. “Five! That’s the limit! Five!” bellowed a staff member in another video. This hot, new item – one that retails at $2.99 – is your pretty standard tote bag affair, with a bland ecru outer and straps that come in red, navy, yellow and green. It’s actually just a slightly smaller version of a tote bag that is already being sold at Trader Joe’s, but despite these facts, the bags continue to light up lives across America.

Though watching people squeal with delight as they show them off can feel like wandering into a second dimension, these bags are serious business for some. “I’m obsessed”, said one user in the caption of her GRWM. “It can fit a whole Macbook in there!” said another, incredulously. “People are pleasantly surprised by how much you can fit in such a small bag,” said a greenscreen explainer. “Look at that full library she’s putting in there,” they narrated as a woman placed two (2) books inside her bag. Though some size queens decried Trader Joe’s mini tote as just too mini, others were quick to jump to its defence, demonstrating that it, in fact, “fits so much”. And nimble-fingered creatives even got in on the act, embroidering their totes with cutesy little fruits and flowers. “The Trader Joe’s mini tote is cool and all,” declared one artist. “But do you wanna know what’s even better? Embroidered Trader Joe’s tote!”

It’s unclear how this frenzy began, but we can probably chalk it down to online hype creating the impression of scarcity that doesn’t really exist (the bags launched in mid Feb, but are only just blowing up now). Some have pointed to their “limited edition” status and compared it to the whole Stanley Cup debacle, where consumers went similarly mad over an everyday item. Casey Lewis, a youth consumer trends analyst and writer of the After School newsletter, told us back in January that “buying stuff feels good – it’s a dopamine hit. There’s a thrill of satisfaction when you track down the colour or model or limited-edition drop,” and that “buying into the trend can make consumers momentarily feel connected to other consumers of the same product, or as if they’re ‘participating’ in society.” This clamouring to belong to an in-group is probably why so many people are desperate to show them off online, and also why others have taken advantage of that need, reselling them on eBay for insane amounts (at the time of writing, one live listing was priced at $1,999 for all four colourways, while most others were listed for about about $200).

All of this would be a little more palatable, though, if Trader Joe’s wasn’t currently embroiled in a battle with its workers’ union. Back in 2022, the company abruptly closed one of its shops after staff members attempted to unionise, but denied it was due to this, stating the store was “underperforming.” In February 2024, members of the union Trader Joe’s United walked out of their New York store in protest of the “unlawful termination of a vocal union organiser at the store.” And just three days ago, the Guardian reported on Trader Joe’s lawsuit against the National Labor Relations Board – America’s largest labor watchdog – that attempts to declare it an unconstitutional body. Maybe the next time TikTokers embroider daisies onto their tote bags, they can smatter a couple on the legal documents? A lawsuit calling for the dissolution of a federal agency that protects workers rights is cool and all, but do you wanna know what’s better? An embroidered one!