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Louise Thomas
Editor
Trader Joe’s mini cooler totes are the latest item from the beloved grocery store to go viral, and fans can soon expect them to be back in stock.
The American supermarket chain will restock the popular mini cooler totes on July 17, according to Instagram fan account Trader Joe’s Obsessed. The coolers will remain affordable at $3.99, and will be offered in shades of magenta and teal.
“A limited amount of magenta and teal mini insulated totes will be available in most Trader Joe’s stores,” the company confirmed to Axios on Tuesday, adding that purchase “limits will be up to individual stores.”
When the miniature version of Trader Joe’s picnic-friendly cooler bags hit the store’s aisles in June, droves of customers immediately flocked to the store to get their hands on the inexpensive bags. Within days of launching, people began reselling the bags on eBay, with sets going for almost $50.
The exclusivity of Trader Joe’s limited edition products, like the mini coolers, is in line with the company’s strategy of creating demand while maintaining affordable prices for customers.
“You go to Trader Joe’s because you love the treasure hunt, you love the idea of cheap chic,” Bryant University professor Michael Roberto - who wrote a case study about the grocery chain in 2013 for Harvard Business School - explained to Bloomberg. “That’s appealing to people of all incomes.”
In the past few years, the grocery store chain has courted viral success with other popular accessories, including smaller versions of their best-selling canvas totes and full-size insulated bags in an array of colors – incentivizing customers to collect more as the company releases different versions.
Earlier this year, the viral $3 mini tote bags became sort of a status symbol on TikTok, with influencers sharing how they customized their Trader Joe’s bags with paint, buttons, and embroidery. Like the mini coolers, the totes – offered in blue, red, green, and yellow – were initially sold at the low price of $2.99, but were later resold on platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace for three times the price. Third-party sellers were offering the bags from $20 for one to $999 for a set of four.
“Our Mini Canvas Tote Bags certainly sold more quickly than we anticipated,” Nakia Rohde, a spokesperson for Trader Joe’s, told the Associated Press at the time. “Before we had the opportunity to promote them in any way, customers across the country found them at their neighborhood Trader Joe’s.”
“We do have more Trader Joe’s Mini Canvas Tote Bags coming,” Rohde added. “Customers can expect to see them in our stores in late summer.”
With the company’s products frequently going viral, Rohde noted that Trader Joe’s doesn’t condone the reselling of its products, saying: “Our customers, in our stores, are our focus.”
The need to collect items popularized by social media has more to do with our status and sense of security. Jay Zagorsky - a clinical associate professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business - explained to the outlet: “We as humans seem to hoard things that social media makes us think is desirable or important.”
The instinct to collect is more potent during times of uncertainty, in which bulk buying is something that consumers often do to feel more secure about their future. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Zagorsky added that consumers were bulk-buying household items like toilet paper.
Although it isn’t bad to buy multiple mini coolers, consumers should try to be more mindful of collecting for scarcity’s sake and not succumb to panic buying.
