
Trader Joe's tote bags went viral in 2024. The 2025 bags are coming soon
Here's what to know.
The company declined to share any further information regarding colors, pricing and when customers can expect to see the bags.
The Reno Gazette Journal, however, part of the USA TODAY network, reported on Aug. 13 the bags will be available in black, orange, purple and a multicolored option and will cost $2.99 each.
The last batch of bags was released in April and appeared to be Easter-themed, as they were available in pastel shades of blue, pink, purple and green.
In March 2024, the mini totes became so popular that customers waited in lengthy lines to get their hands on them. Viral videos on TikTok showed buying frenzies, where employees were often forced to limit how many bags customers could purchase.
The "mini canvas tote bags certainly sold more quickly than we anticipated," Trader Joe's representative Nakia Rohde told USA TODAY in March 2024. "Before we had the opportunity to promote them in any way, customers across the country found them at their neighborhood Trader Joe's."
Story continues after photo gallery.
The overwhelming hype led people to list the bags for as much as $500 on online marketplaces like Facebook and eBay.
At the time, Trader Joe's made it clear that it was aware of the resellers, adding that it was "done without our approval or authorization and outside the controls of our quality-minded supply chain."
The company continued, "To be clear, we neither condone nor support the reselling of our products and do all we can to stop the practice."
While the mini canvas tote bags are not available at the moment, Trader Joe's does have mini insulated totes available now.
The bags, about the size of a lunchbox, are available in two colors: peach and blue. They are available for $3.99 each.
There are four Trader Joe's locations in Indiana:
To see more Trader Joe's locations visit locations.traderjoes.com.
Contributing: Ariel Smith, Eric Lagatta, Jonathan Limehouse & Taylor Ardrey, USA TODAY Network
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Meta Freezes AI Hiring as Surging Costs Raise Concerns, Report Says
Meta Platforms (META) reportedly has frozen hiring in its high-profile artificial intelligence division as investors grow concerned about the unit's surging costs. According to The Wall Street Journal, the tech giant began the freeze last week amid a broader restructuring, and exceptions would require the approval of chief AI officer Alexandr Wang. Meta has hired 50-plus AI engineers and researchers for the four-team unit, and "prohibits current employees from moving across teams inside the division," the report said. Meta hired Scale AI CEO Wang in June to lead an AI "superintelligence group." The tech giant has been among the most aggressive in the sector in poaching engineers and researchers to staff up its AI division, reportedly offering nine-figure pay packages as well as using so-called "reverse acquihires," where it buys into a startup to get its leaders, as it did with Scale AI. The Journal said that some analysts are worried that Meta's stock-based compensation costs would threaten shareholder returns. Meta didn't immediately respond to an Investopedia request for comment. The tech firm's shares, which entered Thursday up 28% this year, are little changed in premarket trading. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data


E&E News
5 minutes ago
- E&E News
As insurers leave California, one vows to cover additional risky homes
One of California's largest property insurers pledged to sell additional policies in wildfire-threatened areas, becoming the first company to use a new state order aimed at resolving the state's insurance crisis.. Mercury Insurance said in a recent rate filing with the state that it would cover more homes in parts of California where wildfire risk has made insurance scarce and costly. In exchange, California's third-largest home insurer was allowed to propose a rate increase based on computer models that incorporate climate change and other future conditions to predict property damage and claims. Advertisement California insurers have been barred for decades from using models that are common elsewhere and were forced to set rates based on historical claims payments — a system they denounced. As insurers stopped covering hundreds of thousands of properties in wildfire-prone areas in recent years, California's insurance commissioner said they could use models but only if they expanded coverage in risky areas. 'They're trying out the new process. That is important,' said Michael Wara, director of Stanford University's Climate and Energy Policy Program, of Mercury. 'The prices that Californians are paying are out of whack with the risk.' Wara said Mercury's rate filing 'is the first example of using a model to estimate what the risk is now … as opposed to a backward-looking view.' The new process was the last piece of a group of regulations advanced by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to transform how property insurance is priced in the state. Los Angeles-based Mercury sells multiple kinds of insurance. California accounts for 70 percent of its home-insurance premiums. In the filing, Mercury said it's 'targeting' the addition of up to 6,200 customers from wildfire-distressed areas and from the California FAIR plan. The plan is a state-chartered insurer required to sell property coverage to people who cannot buy it on the market. Its policy count has soared this decade after natural disasters and insurer pullbacks. But Mercury's filing also highlights the uncertainty over whether insurers will live up to their promises of expanded coverage. In an Aug. 1 statement, Consumer Watchdog, a California consumer advocacy group, said Lara's regulations include no guarantee that they will expand coverage in risky areas and give insurers many ways to avoid or delay insuring high-risk customers. Wara agreed the language is slippery but added, 'If there was no flexibility, they wouldn't have agreed.' Mercury's filing said it's 'dedicated to growth in California' and that it is 'aiming to grow by 15 percent in distressed areas.' Michael Soller, a spokesperson for Lara, said, 'We have strong existing enforcement tools available to hold insurance companies accountable to their commitments and we will not hesitate to use those tools.' 'A black-box catastrophe model' Wildfires and other natural disasters in recent years have left California insurers with multibillion-dollar payouts. Insurers have requested large rate hikes from California regulators and pared back business in areas they consider high risk. Since 2022, seven of California's top 12 insurance companies have either paused or stopped writing property insurance, even as they ask to increase rates, the Insurance Department says. Insurance companies say they're withdrawing because California's regulatory process makes it hard to set prices that reflect increased climate exposure and rising reconstruction costs. Extensive losses from the LA-area wildfires in January further damaged industry confidence. 'They're risk-averse right now,' Wara said. Kevin Stein, CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Delos Insurance Solutions, said many insurers have overcorrected by pulling back more than necessary. Delos is a specialty insurer in California that faces less regulation than the large companies that comprise most of the market. It sells about 30,000 home insurance policies in California and bases its prices on proprietary wildfire models that specialty insurers are allowed to use. 'A lot of companies right now don't know the risk in certain areas. They're adding in uncertainty or using models that think certain areas are risky, but they're actually not,' Stein said, referring to what his own company's models show. Hoping to lure companies back to the state, Lara, the insurance commissioner, issued a series of regulations answering industry demands. Lara's new rules promise to speed up the approval process for increasing rates. They also allow insurance companies to pass on some costs such as reinsurance to their customers — a practice that was previously barred. Primary insurers buy reinsurance to help cover payments after catastrophic events. Catastrophe models are advanced computer programs that can simulate natural disasters. California was the last state that barred them in the ratemaking process. Consumer Watchdog has opposed the regulations allowing models, saying that they lack the transparency that's supposed to be the hallmark of California's regulatory process. 'In the past, the public was able to review each insurer's historical catastrophe loss dollars, and see the step-by-step calculation of the catastrophe portion of their rates,' Ben Armstrong, the group's staff actuary, said in an email. 'Mercury is now using a black-box catastrophe model, which spits out a number that they claim to be a reliable estimate of wildfire losses. Since the model is secret, we can't check the numbers.' This month, the Insurance Department approved the last of three wildfire models created by the private sector for insurance companies to use to set rates. The company has been hammered by extreme weather. It reported catastrophe-related losses of $460 million in the first half of this year, mostly due to the LA-area fires and severe storms in Texas and Oklahoma. That's more than double what it sustained in the first half of 2024. Mercury in its rate filing asks to increase rates by an average of 6.9 percent across California — just short of the 7 percent rate hike that triggers a longer public review. Mercury claims 6.5 percent of the market share for residential property insurance but estimates it has only 2.9 percent of the business in California's wildfire-distressed areas. It said it intends to increase the latter figure in the two years after new rates are approved. Eight years from now it aims to take 'around 6.5 percent' of FAIR plan customers. Mercury declined to answer questions about the filing. In June, it hired a senior director of climate and catastrophe science and established a new team focused on climate-driven extreme weather. The company claims to be one of the first large insurance companies to return to Paradise, California, which was devastated by the 2018 Camp Fire. It said firsthand observation of reconstruction efforts there — which include stricter building codes and fire-break techniques around the city — helped persuade it that even risky areas can be insurable.
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Chicago Residents Blast ‘Monstrosity' Obama Presidential Center as Displacement Fears Grow
The much-awaited Obama Presidential Center, a space designed to inspire and connect people, has stirred up quite a bit of controversy on Chicago's South Side. Construction of the center started in 2021 and is expected to wrap up later this year, but residents and activists are already speculating how the ambitious project will affect locals. "There is always a concern when a development of this magnitude enters an area," Michael Opyd, a Chicago-based broker, told "Since its announcement, I have had several clients ask about how it will impact the market. Many of the people I have spoken with are taking a wait-and-see approach to determine the impact of the center." Eight months into 2025, the Obama Foundation is finally gearing up to welcome visitors to the 19-acre South Side Chicago campus. "As we inch closer toward opening, construction crews are working tirelessly to build a new home for hope," the website reads. The foundation has stated that it will raise all funds needed for construction of the project, meaning money from taxpayers or collaborator University of Chicago will not be used. Once the center is finished, the foundation will give the National Archives and Records Administration an endowment covering 60% of the facility's total cost. The foundation will cover and manage the rest of the center on its own. Lakeside Alliance, the construction company overseeing the project, reported that it would cost approximately $500 million to build the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park. Since then, many organizations have spoken out about how the project could negatively impact Chicago's longtime residents. Community concerns "Looking at how other developments pushed out Black people in the last 10 to 15 years, it was a big concern,' says Allegra Fischer, an attorney for the Chicago Lawyers' Committee. 'We wanted to make sure this was done in a way that doesn't displace residents." economist Jiayi Xu says "rising property values from the center's development could accelerate displacement in historically lower-cost neighborhoods, pricing out long-term residents and weakening community stability. "Without robust affordability protections, long-standing communities may be replaced by higher-income households, reshaping the area's housing landscape." The Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition—a group working to ensure the development benefits the local community—has called on the center to create jobs for people in communities around the project; protect housing for working families, those with low incomes, and homeowners; support, create Black businesses; and strengthen neighborhood schools, as per its website. In June 2024, former President Barack Obama visited the site, which broke ground in 2016, and greeted workers. "The sacrifices you have all made, I could not be more grateful," Obama said. "You've got young people learning, have an opportunity that wouldn't have always had. That's not just because of me. That's because of you." Not everyone is grateful. Ken Woodward, an attorney based in Chicago, told Fox News that the center "looks like this big piece of rock that just landed here out of nowhere in what used to be a really nice landscape of trees and flowers. "It's over budget, it's taking way too long to finish and it's going to drive up prices and bring headaches and problems for everyone who lives here. It feels like a washing away of the neighborhood and culture that used to be here," he added, calling the structure a "monstrosity." Currently, the median household income in the city of Chicago is $72,428, and the median home list price is $377,000. Xu says without targeted affordability protections, the development could deepen Chicago's existing housing affordability crisis. While there has been a concerted effort to protect residents who live around the Obama Presidential Center, real estate agents and economists point to potential benefits, too. "I have several clients who live in the area. All of them believe that once completed, it will have a positive impact on the area and community. The area surrounding the library is dense with not a lot of space to develop, which would entice more developers to enter the market than normal," says Opyd. The project could even be the catalyst for a housing boom, drawing in tourism, jobs, and more amenities. "The Obama Presidential Center is poised to increase housing demand in nearby neighborhoods by bringing jobs, tourism, and new amenities. This added demand is likely to drive home values and prices higher, particularly in historically more affordable areas, raising both investment interest and concerns over housing affordability," Xu explained. Solve the daily Crossword