Why is everything ‘mini’ these days?

New York (CNN) — It’s not just you. Everything is shrinking.

This week, Trader Joe’s restocked the $2.99 mini tote bags that were resold for as much as $500 on eBay earlier this year. Stores prominently display travel-sized haircare, skincare and makeup products. TikToks of micro beauty bags being stuffed with micro products are racking up millions of views. Even iced tea brand Snapple has launched an 8-ounce bottle, advertised to fit in a mini bag.

For many people, mini-products may not seem to make much sense. But despite the higher cost per ounce to consumers, increased packaging and the potential to stoke overconsumption, brands are betting shrunk-down goods will scratch customers’ itch for nostalgia and provide an affordable entry point into luxury.

Fashion Institute of Technologybusiness management professor Shawn Carter said that, since Covid, stores are giving better shelf real estate to their mini products, a bid to battle high prices and to lure in the store’s youngest customers, Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Microfashion items began in the 1960s, Carter said. With the introduction of the mini skirt came the mini clutch bag and then the mini top handle bag.

Like many eras in fashion, minis havemade a comeback. “That trend accelerated in 2022, it went on steroids,” Carter said. But “it’s no longer a trend. This is here to stay.”

Take it from Trader Joe’s. Matt Sloan, VP of marketing and host of the chain’s “Inside Trader Joe’s” podcast, said in a March episode the company had “no inkling” the mini tote bags would become such a viral craze.

“We had actually hundreds of thousands of bags come in and go out within a week,” Sloan said.