Forget buying a designer bag to flaunt your style credentials. These days, a fashion girlie’s weapon of choice is more likely to come from a supermarket.
Trader Joe’s is the latest example of a growing trend, with hundreds of fans camping outside branches of the US grocery store to get their hands on one of its limited edition canvas totes.
After selling out in stores, it became a sort of Everything Bagel-seasoned Birkin, being listed on resale sites for up to $1,500 (£1,127) – over 500 times its $2.99 (£2.25) retail price.
Regardless of whether they’d ever stepped foot in a Trader Joe’s, people around the world are in on the frenzy, with social media posts showing TJ tote collections from as far as London and South Korea.
But while spending a month’s rent on a bog-standard shopping bag may be on the extreme side, these seemingly basic items are now seen more as status symbols.
‘Choosing a tote bag is all about owned brand identity and what represents you as a person,’ Kineta Kelsall, founder of School of Social tells Metro.
‘And because we document every part of our lives online – from ‘get ready with me’ TikToks to candid photo shoots for social – these choices feed a curated version of who we are, which is not necessarily the truth, but the perceptions we want to project.’
For a relatively small fee, you can mark yourself out as anyone you want; wine connoisseur or music purist, refined museum-goer or generous charity-donator.
‘Every time you leave the house, you’re aligning yourself to that brand’s status, even if you technically can’t afford to shop there,’ Kineta adds. ‘Social accelerates this by making it super easy to build a false identity.’
Trader Joe’s isn’t the only logo people love to have on their arm either. The $52 (£39) tote from upscale LA health food store Erehwon is beloved among ‘it girls’ – including Michelle Monaghan’s White Lotus character Jaclyn, who brought hers to Thailand. So are those from Merit Beauty,
Here in the UK, a Daunt Books bag has long been a staple of the cultured (or wannabe cultured) urbanite. In contrast to its modest retail footprint of 10 shops across the South of England, the bookseller has a global reputation as a result of its bags, and the likes of Jodie Comer, Elizabeth Olsen and EmilyRatajkowski have all been spotted carrying one.
According to Annabelle Sacher, Head of Digital PR at MediaVision, part of the allure is the ‘literary cool’ it signals in the wearer.
‘Retailers like Daunt don’t operate nationwide (or globally), which gives their bags a built-in scarcity – and for Gen Z, who values aesthetic, owning one is a flex,’ she tells Metro. ‘These bags are also easy to photograph, highly recognisable in a way that suggests personality just through being an accessory.’
This popularity led to ubiquity however, and after unauthorised imitations popped up online, some moved on from Daunt.
On a Reddit thread discussing London’s tote bag hierarchy, its biggest art world rivals look like Cass Art, MUBI, London Review of Books, or anything from the V&A. For the foodie crowd it’s all about cult spots such as Forno, Pophams and Panzer’s Deli, while APC, Jimmy Fairly and Ace and Tate are favoured by the fashion set.
As for supermarket options, designer collabs like Lulu Guinness for Waitrose and the Anya Hindmarch Universal Bag (available at one point or another from Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Co-op, Asda and Morrisons) reign supreme, with the latter described on Instagram as ‘Hermes for mid-class’.
While it’s not a particularly new phenomenon – remember the Bloomingdale’s Little Brown Bag? – Kineta says brands would be wise to capitalise on current interest, both by releasing their own and joining in the online conversation about what it represents.
‘A tote bag is low cost, but high exposure,’ she explains. ‘They turn consumers into walking billboards, facilitating a sense of community which draws new potential audiences in.’
Annabelle reckons more local and niche retailers will lean into this trend, and we’ll see an increasing number of ‘limited drops, collabs, or regional exclusives.’
She continues: ‘The tote is no longer just a freebie; it’s a form of soft power in public spaces and online. Retailers that get this right won’t just sell bags – they’ll build brands people want to carry, whether they’ve walked through the doors or not.’
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