February 6, 2026
SINGAPORE – Few things unite a city’s varied tribes like a trending tote bag.
Gen Z’s Victorian distaste for millennial ankle-baring jeans, and millennial eye-rolls at Gen X’s Burberry polos all fade into a strange consensus when it comes to the reusable canvas bag of the moment.
For months now, that has been a cream and navy Trader Joe’s shopping bag, stamped with the brand’s red logo.
The American grocery chain’s merchandise has burrowed into the closets of university students, pilates-loving office workers and apprised women in their 60s alike.
This latest beacon of intergenerational kindredness is a global phenomenon. Trader Joe’s has sold reusable shopping bags since 1977, but its breakthrough came in the US in 2024, when a limited-edition mini version went viral.
The tiny bags sparked Black Friday-esque queues and opportunistic bulk buying. The current popular standard make also trended in Japan that year, before hitting South Korea and East London in mid-2025.
It washed up in Singapore slightly after, with Google searches for the carriers going from zero before June 2024 to nearly 200 in January 2026.
Resale price tags for the US$2.99 (S$3.80) bag reportedly go up to the thousands on eBay, though on local online marketplace Carousell, the large size averages a breezy $20.
So it seems Singapore consumers have kept their heads, even if the soundness of voluntarily advertising a business with no stores outside America may seem a little suspect.
A piece of America
In fact, its American-ness is the point.
Trader Joe’s swag owners in Singapore say the bag is a badge of honour – proof of their travels. Some are familiar with the 59-year-old chain’s fun neighbourhood joint image, its range of creative house brand products and so-called liberal politics, all of which have culminated in a cult following in the US.
More often, acquisitions are indirect, gifts from others based there or bought on the resale market.
The international draw of the bag likely has more to do with its low-key evocation of its home country than Trader Joe’s chain’s quirky chai tea-flavoured mints.
For one thing, it is red, white and blue, just like the American flag. This, coupled with its shape and double-strapped design, give it a varsity air – part of the casual American look, also known as “Amerikajin” fashion in Japan.
The trend comes at an odd time when most world powers are anxious to decouple from President Donald Trump’s America, and the country’s tourism is in the dumps.
According to data from the World Travel & Tourism Council released in January, the US was the only major economy to see a slide in tourism in 2025, with a 6 per cent drop in international arrivals even as global travel boomed.
So the appearance of having been to the US is now more sought after than actually going there, meaning America’s cultural capital is alive, if not well.
That the seemingly last shred of star-spangled cool should reside in a produce chain is, by my guess, just another function of the laws of randomness governing tote bag success, a mishmash of subconscious and market forces.
Trader Joe’s tote owner Janine Cruz suggests it is “a nice little way to show off that you’ve been to a particular country or support a particular type of lifestyle”. Though for the 32-year-old local designer who has never been to a Trader Joe’s, it was the useful pockets on the bag that were the draw.
The American grocery chain’s merchandise has burrowed into the closets of university students, pilates-loving office workers and apprised women in their 60s alike. PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES
In the last 10 years, totes have evolved from being an eco-conscious gesture to a declaration of its wearer’s taste.
Before Trader Joe’s, it was Bangkok-based fast-fashion brand Gentlewoman’s bags that were ubiquitous in 2023. It jostled with offerings by indie London bookstore Daunt Books, Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company and American print magazine The New Yorker.
Not much binds them in the way of aesthetics, and the rise of Gentlewoman – virtually unheard of here until its 2023 explosion – was particularly arbitrary. Then again, these bags were all by obviously foreign brands and had some kind of literary connection. Gentlewoman shares a name with an unaffiliated cult London fashion magazine.
These hints at internationalism and sophistication might be why American news publication The Wall Street Journal in January pitched the Trader Joe’s bag as a status symbol, or why these humble “purses” became a hallmark of the much-memed performative male archetype.
But the truth is probably less serious, given that these hot bags are all patently casual items, ostensibly made for carrying parsley and gym clothes.
Spread by word of mouth
There is also a retro charm to the mostly offline way tote bags take off in Singapore.
Trader Joe’s mania was well documented overseas, but it has not inspired the same social media frenzy here, and Gentlewoman’s proliferation happened so discreetly as to feel overnight.
Could it be that word of mouth or the simple act of noticing what others wear and use are still valid ways of starting a trend?
Ms Lim Ai Teng, 56, bought her tote after seeing it on the arm of her daughter, who is studying in the US, and many others there during a visit.
“It is of course used as a regular grocery bag there, but I thought it was quite stylish-looking too,” says Ms Lim, who works in commodities market research.
Trends still naturally find their way online, of course, and sometimes in the form of ridicule. The Gentlewoman craze prompted a viral Instagram page @gentlewomanbaginsg dedicated to posting sightings of the loudly branded bag.
Even now, one needs some confidence to participate in the trend.
Ms Cruz says she once walked by a woman in London who, upon seeing her Trader Joe’s bag, remarked that she could not understand the popularity of carrying what amounted to British budget supermarket Asda merchandise.
Ms Cruz, who uses her bag for groceries and work, says: “That gave me a good chuckle.”
It helps that, by many accounts, it is simply a good product. Says 28-year-old dosimetrist Jolene Phua: “It is quite well designed, with pockets on the front and back which are super helpful for quick access.
“Its straps are just the right length and it is not too flimsy like a regular reusable bag, nor too lup sup (Singlish for sloppy).”
But its quality does not fully explain its popularity.
FairPrice Finest’s tote bag collaboration with English bags and accessories brand Anya Hindmarch in end-2024 never reached these heights, although the $22 carrier was said to be built to last 10 years.
Perhaps time and some distance may yet give it a boost.
What Is With… is a new series examining current internet fixations at the intersection of style and pop culture.