Consumers’ appetite for food, grocery and restaurant merch continues to grow, if recent runs on Trader Joe’s totes and Aldi’s latest drop are any indication.

Sometimes, the merch is the food itself, spiced up with the flavor of a favorite brand, like Star Wars-branded blue milk from TruMoo, hitting store shelves on April 17, in plenty of time to pour a glass for Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you).

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A post shared by TruMoo Milk (@trumoo)


Inspired by a brief moment early in the first film, released in 1977, the blue-hued, vanilla-flavored dairy beverage was announced as part of Lucasfilm’s “Imperial March” campaign last month, along with new collectibles, apparel and fan events. Food & Wine magazine reports that a couple of Disney theme parks already serve a version of the blue milk and suggests drinking it straight up “with a Wookie Cookie on the side.”

Special snacks and drinks (and related merch) can also piggyback on an exciting event. For example, in our own skies (not a galaxy far, far away), the total eclipse of the sun that cut across North America on Monday, April 8,inspired tons of merch, whether for a local pop-up shop or a nationwide corporate promo.

In honor of the occasion – and it is really an occasion without snacks? – Frito-Lay created a special limited-edition bag of Eclipse SunChips that combines two flavors in one bag. Food & Wine reports that “SunChips Solar Eclipse Limited-Edition Pineapple Habanero and Black Bean Spicy Gouda chips are created to mirror bright sunny skies and the cheesy moon … in a limited edition 2024 bag that may be a social media trophy to those who can acquire the exclusive snack.”

Frito-Lay secured the endorsement of at least one astronaut for its stellar snack. Kellie Gerardi, who flew with commercial spaceflight company Virgin Galactic, posted that “there’s truly no better solar eclipse snack.”


The special SunChips may have been even harder to come by than a glimpse of totality, though. They were only available online – and only for a few minutes. Fans had to register at sunchipssolareclipse.com starting at 1:33 p.m. Central on April 8 to win a bag of chips and “eclipse swag kit” of “SunChips gear.”

Other recent merch drops are decidedly more down to Earth. Supermarket News reports that Aldi fans in one Chicago neighborhood lined up to get first crack at the discount grocer’s merch section when its latest collection of branded products hit store shelves in March.

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A post shared by Kitty (@sparklemotion13)


Like its previous iterations, this capsule features Adidas-inspired design and includes new versions of the standard assortment of joggers, sweatshirts, dog apparel, tumblers, bucket hats, socks and fanny packs. New this time around are Aldi-branded women’s sneakers with red soles and the Aldi logo and piping in the brand’s signature colors.


Aldi fans on social media have dubbed the “Aldi Finds” merch aisle the “Aisle of Shame” and use the moniker as a tag or group name to alert others to new merch and share their finds. The Aldi Aisle of Shame Community on Facebook alone has 2.7 million members.

New Instagram account @aldi_aisle_of_joy is pushing back on the “shame” idea and reveling in the fun, making its debut with an over-the-top video celebrating their March merch haul.

 still from an Aldi Finds fan video
IMAGE: Instagram/@aldi_aisle_of_joy