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99 Ranch Market, the popular Asian grocer, introduced limited edition mini-tote bags at select locations for $2.99.
Sound familiar? Last year, Trader Joe’s limited edition mini-totes went viral, selling out within minutes of their debut.
Read on… to find out why these mini-totes represent a new kind of Asian American sensibility.
When Tiffany Luke saw a video of a limited edition mini-tote bag from her favorite supermarket chain on social media about two weeks ago, her impulse was to gun it to her local store.
"I told my husband … 'We need to get in the car right now because I want to go see if they have the tote bags,’" said Luke, who is Taiwanese American and lives in Irvine.
You'd be forgiven if you thought the bags in question were from Trader Joe's. Those went viral and sold out in minutes last year. Luke already has one of those.
The items she wanted were from 99 Ranch, the ever-expanding chain of Asian supermarkets that have been a staple of Chinese-speaking communities in Southern California for four decades.
Immigrants were once its primary clientele, but if these zeitgeist-y bags are any indication, 99 Ranch is no longer your parents' Tawa Supermarket.
Luke ended up getting six mini-totes at the Irvine store — for her sister and her mom too.
" I shop the most at 99 Ranch Market for my grocery store needs. So it was just really cool to have a little mini tote bag version," she said.
And being the seasoned influencer that she is, Luke quickly posted about her latest acquisitions.
There are many, many Asian supermarkets in SoCal, but for those living in areas where Chinese is a major language — even if you have never set foot inside one — you've probably seen or heard of 99 Ranch Market.
The chain was founded by Roger Chen, a Taiwanese immigrant living in Orange County who got so tired of driving to Chinatown for groceries that he decided to open his own supermarket for a growing population of transplants like him and his family. In 1984, his first store broke ground in Westminster — a precursor to 99 Ranch, or Tawa (大華) in Chinese. Today, the chain has more than 60 stores across the country, according to its Facebook page, with an outsized presence in California.
Wei Li, a professor at Arizona State University whose research focuses on immigrant communities, remembered going to the market's now shuttered Chinatown location as a doctoral student at USC in the 1990s.
"I really loved it," Li said. "Especially in traditional Chinatown, grocery stores are often very tiny and carry some items but not like a huge variety."
But when 99 Ranch opened, she said, "it's all of sudden like, oh my gosh, it's a huge supermarket, similar to mainstream supermarket, but tailored to Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants."
At the time, Li was doing research on the San Gabriel Valley — which she viewed as a new kind of ethnic suburb that was unlike Chinatowns or enclaves where immigrants traditionally gathered and lived, often in isolation from the rest of society.
Li called these new types of communities, such as Monterey Park, "ethnoburbs" — made up of more skilled, educated and economically mobile newcomers arriving through new U.S. immigration policies since the 1960s.
"They are more outward looking," Li said, adding that these ethnic suburbs are "multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-lingual and often multi-racial."
Chains such as 99 Ranch are part and parcel of these spaces, launched by this new wave of immigrants catering to those with similar sensibilities seeking a more big tent experience.
As ethnoburbs evolve, so do their homegrown businesses, informed by the post-immigrant generations who are adept at navigating not just across cultures within the U.S., but beyond it.
"Folks who have grown up here in America, been socialized by American institutions, I can definitely see those generations bringing that influence back into these ethnoburb communities," said Samuel Kye, an assistant professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis. " It seems like these totes are one example of that."
And some second- and third-generation Asian Americans are opting to stay in or move into these ethnoburbs.
Like Luke, who was born in San Dimas, grew up in Newport Beach, went to college in L.A., then moved to Irvine about six years ago to be closer to her immigrant parents. Occasionally, she travels to Taiwan to see her grandmother.
" Asian culture is a very big thing in Irvine," said Luke, who told her Vietnamese American husband recently that she was grateful to be living in the O.C. city. "We have within a five- to 10-minute drive five Asian supermarkets — like Korean markets, Chinese markets, Japanese markets."
99 Ranch is now run by Chen scions, who grew up watching their dad grow the family business. Their aim — to make 99 Ranch a household name across the country.
One way to do that is to ride the zeitgeist.
"A generation ago, you're mostly depending on word of mouth among ethnic community members to be able to bring audiences to these grocery stores," Washington University’s Kye said.
There are all kinds of mainstream cultural ways to get the word out, precisely because these businesses — as well as their clientele and the people who run them — comfortably straddle so many different worlds, he added.
"It's a combination of second-, third-generation immigrants who are both proud of their ethnic heritage, but also proudly American," Kye said.
The mini-tote, he said, could be thought of as "an item that symbolically represents both of those backgrounds."
Judging by the popularity of these now-sold-out totes, 99 Ranch is onto something.
"Growing up, 99 Ranch Market wasn't as big as it is now," Luke said. "Seeing that it has grown in popularity to the point where people see these tote bags and they get excited about it — makes me happy to see that too."
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Some 10 million Southern California residents will travel out of the region through Jan. 1, according to AAA. This Saturday and Sunday are expected to be the busiest for driving for this year-end travel season.
How are people travelling? “The vast majority are gonna go by automobile, about 8.9 million Southern Californians taking road trips,” said Doug Shupe of the Automobile Club of Southern California.
About 945,000 people are travelling by air with another 332,000 people taking alternative forms of transportation like buses, trains, and cruises.
Where are people going? SoCal residents are mostly driving to places like San Diego, Las Vegas, the Central Coast and local national parks.
Meanwhile, Anaheim and the Los Angeles area are No. 4 in the top five domestic travel destinations for year-end holidays.
“Disneyland plays a huge role in that, but a lot of people nationwide will come to Southern California to celebrate,” Shupe said.
Is travel up? Holiday travel has seen continued growth all year. Compared to last year, auto travel has increased 2.7%, air travel is up 1.7% and alternative methods like trains, buses and cruises are up a whopping 7.4%.
Overall, travel this year is 10.3% higher compared to just before the pandemic began in 2019.
Any travel advice? Leave early! And that goes for those traveling by car and plane, Shupe said.
If you’re driving, inspect your vehicle before hitting the road. “Check your tire tread and inflation, inspect your battery, your headlights and turn signals,” said Shupe.
A winter storm is expected to hit Southern California beginning Tuesday, so make sure your windshield wipers are in good shape or get them replaced.
Flying? Get to the airport two hours early for domestic flights and at least three hours before international ones.
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LACMA’s newly acquired Van Gogh will go on display starting Sunday, making L.A. a rising place to see his work.
Why it matters: Van Gogh was part of the Impressionist movement that revolutionized Western art and continues to influence art and artists.
Why now: LACMA’s exhibit includes 100 other Impressionist works, giving the audience a chance to see Van Gogh in context with his contemporaries.
The backstory: In L.A. County, you also can see Van Gogh paintings at the Hammer Museum, the Getty and the Norton Simon Museum.
Read on ... for more on the newly acquired Van Gogh and Monet works.
LACMA’s first Van Gogh isn’t a painting of blue flowers, golden wheat fields or aged faces. It’s of a parked stagecoach, and it’s considered a good example of what made the Dutch painter, and the Impressionist movement he was a part of, so revolutionary.
The painting is called “Tarascon Stagecoach.” It was painted in 1888 and was donated to LACMA earlier this year by the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation.
It’s LACMA’s first Van Gogh painting, and the encyclopedic museum will be showing it off starting Sunday in a show called “Collecting Impressionism at LACMA” that focuses on 100 works from LACMA’s collection. The works are arranged chronologically to show the evolving tastes that have shaped the museum's collection of Impressionist art.
The museum’s acquisition isn’t just a win for the museum. The museum-going public and the region’s teenage and college-age students also will benefit.
“I very much remember seeing Van Gogh in a rotunda space in the [Philadelphia Museum of Art] and finding it to be just so striking because of these luscious, bright colors,” said Summer Sloane-Britt, who saw her first Van Goh during a middle school visit to the museum.
Sloane-Britt now is a professor of art and art history at Occidental College.
“Visual analysis and seeing objects in person is always so core to historical learning and for studio artists as well,” Sloane-Britt said.
I very much remember seeing Van Gogh in a rotunda space in the [Philadelphia Museum of Art] and finding it to be just so striking because of these luscious, bright colors.
And seeing a Van Gogh in person, Sloane-Britt said, and saying you don’t like it is also OK because that signals the work has led you to identify and assert your own aesthetic tastes in art.
The LACMA exhibit presents a good opportunity to get on the road for a four-stop Van Gogh road trip without leaving L.A. County.
You can start at LACMA and see “Tarascon Stagecoach,” benefiting from the context of seeing other impressionist works by Van Gogh’s contemporaries.
Hop over to the Hammer Museum in Westwood, where you’ll see “Hospital at Saint-Rémy,” one of three paintings by Van Gogh in the collection.
Then head west on Wilshire Boulevard to the Getty to see “Irises,” one of the paintings that’s made Van Gogh an art star.
End your Van Gogh road trip by heading east to Pasadena to the Norton Simon Museum. The museum’s smaller, more intimate setting is a good place to see the museum’s six, yes six, Van Gogh paintings.
The exhibit also will feature the newly acquired work "The Artist’s Garden, Vétheuil" by Claude Monet.
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Orange County officials are warning Friday of a scam targeting owners of lost pets that claim their animal was injured and they need payment for their release.
How it works: A pet owner may get a call from a person claiming to be from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department or a similar agency, warning that their animal has been hit by a car or suffered a medical emergency.
The caller claims the animal has been treated by a vet and is recovering, according to officials, but the owner needs to pay the medical costs before the pet can go home. The scam typically pushes for payment through Zelle or Venmo.
What to do: Do not send any money if you get a suspicious call like this.
When in doubt, contact the agency the caller was claiming to be from by using the official website.
You can report scams to the Orange County Sheriff's Department non-emergency line at (949) 770-6011. But the best way to avoid scam calls is by not answering unknown numbers, according to county officials.
What officials say: Lisa Lebron Flores, a Mission Viejo Police Services crime prevention specialist, said this scam, like many others, is designed to stir up people’s emotions and prompt a quick response.
“We want residents to remember that payments not made on an official website that are made with gift cards, via apps or other means, which are not recognized, are red flags,” she said in a statement.
Go deeper: How to perform for adoptable pets at the Mission Viejo animal shelter
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The new year doesn’t just bring new gifts and new resolutions. It also brings new laws. State and local lawmakers have a lot on tap for 2026 when it comes to housing laws that will affect Southern California renters and landlords.
New crop of laws: From refrigerators to fire damage, from development streamlining to rent control caps, LAist has rounded up the legal changes coming next year that you need to know.
Read on… to learn how lawmakers are tightening limits on annual rent hikes, allowing taller apartment buildings next to transit and protecting Social Security recipients during future government shutdowns.
The new year doesn’t just bring new gifts and new resolutions. It also brings new laws.
State and local lawmakers have a lot on tap for 2026 when it comes to housing laws that will affect Southern California renters and landlords.
From refrigerators to fire damage, from development streamlining to rent control caps, LAist has rounded up the legal changes coming next year that you need to know.
Starting Jan. 1, landlords must provide tenants with a working refrigerator and stove. Many landlords already offer these appliances, but the L.A. area stands out nationwide for having an unusually high proportion of fridge-less apartments.
Next year, L.A. newcomers will no longer be taking to social media to express incredulity at all the city’s bring-your-own-fridge apartments. If landlords fail to provide refrigerators or stoves in good working condition, apartments will be considered uninhabitable under the new law.
In the weeks and months after the January fires, many renters struggled to get their landlords to address toxic ash that blew into apartments and rental homes that remained standing. Some landlords said cleaning up the smoke damage was not their responsibility. Initial communication from local public officials was confusing on what tenants were supposed to do.
This new law, which partially was driven by LAist’s reporting, clarifies that in the wake of a natural disaster, “it shall be the duty of a landlord” to remove “hazards arising from the disaster, including, but not limited to, the presence of mold, smoke, smoke residue, smoke odor, ash, asbestos or water damage.”
L.A.’s City Council voted to oppose it. Mayor Karen Bass asked the governor to veto it. But California’s big new upzoning law passed anyway. Its changes are set to take effect July 1, 2026.
Under the law, new apartment buildings up to nine stories tall will be allowed next to rail stations, and buildings up to five stories tall will be allowed within a half-mile of rapid bus stops. This upzoning applies to neighborhoods within those transit zones, even if they’re currently zoned only for single-family homes.
Next comes the implementation. The law could give renters more options once new housing is constructed. But L.A. could choose to delay the law’s effects in some areas for years. Ahead of the law’s passage, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto sent legislators a letter opposing the bill, signaling what could turn into a legal showdown over the bill.
Tenants can face eviction three days after missing their rent. During this year’s federal government shutdown — the longest on record — that swift timeline was a cause for anxiety among tenants who count on federal benefits to cover their rent.
Though this year’s shutdown did not affect regular Social Security payments, this law will give Social Security recipients a defense in eviction court if they ever stop receiving benefits because of any future shutdowns. Under the law, renters will be required to repay their missed rent, or enter a repayment plan, within two weeks of their Social Security payments being restored.
After years of debate, the L.A. City Council passed a new cap on annual rent hikes in the roughly three-quarters of city apartments covered by local rent control rules.
The City Council enacted a new 4% limit, replacing a 40-year-old formula that allowed increases as high as 10% in some units during periods of high inflation. Councilmembers also ended a 2% additional increase for landlords who cover tenants’ gas and electricity costs.
The city had a nearly four-year rent freeze in place during the COVID-19 pandemic that ended in February 2024. That means many L.A. tenants are scheduled to receive their next rent hike Feb. 1, 2026. They should be getting a 30-day notice soon. Each year’s limit is determined by recent inflation data. The current cap of 3% is set to last until June 30.
