Fans Mourn Loss Of Tupperware
The news that cult kitchen brand Tupperware might be heading for the great storage container in the sky has sparked a wave of nostalgia-tinged mourning on social media.
The iconic American brand known the world over for its plastic food containers, is on the brink of bankruptcy, with spiralling debts of more than $700 million, according to Bloomberg.
The 78-year-old company has been battling for years to revive its fortunes - and despite a surge in sales during Covid, as people were forced to cook at home - it looks like the writing could be on the wall for the company as soon as this week.
A near 80-year love affair with Tupperware could come to an end this week as the US brand looks set to file for bankruptcy after a trying few years
The brand Situs Berita became a cultural phenomenon in the 1950s thanks to its Tupperware parties, where a host would invite housewives around to show off new products
While new generations - particularly Gen Z - have fully embraced the storage concept, they've often plumped for more affordable copycats; the market is saturated with cheaper versions.
Environmental concerns regarding the over-use of plastic hasn't helped the company's fortunes either.
In its heyday, Tupperware was the original food storage pioneer; it first burst onto the scene in the mid-1940s and soon became famous for its 'Tupperware parties', where housewives would gather in the evening with a glass of wine, while a host would present the company's latest products.
What's more, the brand famously also had a fan in the late Queen - who was said to use their products everyday.
Younger generations appreciate the kitchen storage brand, including vintage looks re-released in recent years - but cheaper copycats have meant Tupperware is no longer the go-to
For many hearing the news of the brand's potential demise this week, it triggered memories of family members holding or attending parties - with some suggesting vintage Tupperware might even become family heirlooms.
One wrote: 'Our mothers are going to become inconsolable. Wills will need to be updated. Those Tupperware in her cupboard is your inheritance now. Finally, we will have generational wealth.'
Another added: 'Sad to hear Tupperware has gone into liquidation. Memories of mum at New year getting out the three-tier Party Susan and filling it with diced cheeses, pineapple, ham and pickles etc. Happy days!'
Elsewhere on X, there was insight into exactly why the brand has failed to continue to dominate the market in the way that it once did.
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Said one: 'Tupperware is just far too expensive compared to other brands. Like this isn't the 1950s anymore where you could probably buy Tupperware for maybe 10 dollars.'
Another added: 'Cheaper alternative brands are making a lot of money. Tupperware is just too expensive relative to the cheaper brand, that's why they losing money.'
Last Friday, Tupperware disclosed it has 'substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern' in the face of a cash crunch and pressure from creditors, after errors in its financial statements left it unable to timely file an annual report.
Meanwhile, experts have now said that financial missteps, the demise of the direct-sales model in the age of e-commerce, and the rise of cheap alternatives - including re-useable containers from food deliveries - have all also played a role in Tupperware's downfall.
Here FEMAIL takes a look back at company's glory days - as consumers prepare to say goodbye to Tupperware.
Mr Tupper and Mrs Wise: How a single mother became the glamorous face of the emerging brand
Brownie Wise (pictured) was a divorced single mother when she discovered Tupperware products in the late 1940s. She took the brand worldwide by coming up with their 'Tupperware parties'
In 1946, Earl Tupper, from New Hampshire, created his first range of polyethylene kitchenware.
At the time, the US was still reeling from the Great Depression and the chemist wanted to create a product that could help with food waste.
The aspiring product developer was inspired by the airtight seal on paint cans and used this as the basis for the 'Wonderbowl' - which hit shelves the following year.
A 1947 House Beautiful review of the Wonderbowl labelled it 'fine art for 39 cents'.
However, the vacuum-sealed plastic container was so innovative that shoppers were wary at first - and required demonstrations on how to use it.
Undated photo of Earl Tupper and Brownie Wise. The founder hired the single mother as his Vice President of Marketing in 1951
A group of unspecified women attend a Tupperware party, some wearing hats fashioned from Tupperware products in 1955
According to History.com, confused customers kept returning the air-tight lids to shops as they believed they didn't fit.
In a bid to boost sales, Earl Tupper hired divorced secretary Brownie Wise to be his Vice President of Marketing in 1951.
A few years before, a travelling salesman tried to sell the single mother the products on her doorstep.
According to Bob Kealing's 2016 biography Life Of the Party, Brownie was so unimpressed with his pitch that she decided to try selling Tupperware herself.
In order to make some extra money, the single mother started hosting 'Tupperware Patio Parties' at her home.
She later said: 'I needed the money for me and my kid. So I got out there and made it.'
Brownie Wise, vice president and general manager of the Tupperware Home Parties, receives award from Boston Sales Executives Club in 1956
At the time, she had been working at Stanley Home Products and became one of the chain's managers in Michigan - before the founder told her: 'Management is no place for a woman.'
Although Tupperware had been well received by the press, it was still struggling to shift products in store.
As Brownie was outselling major department stores between 1949 and 1950, she was offered exclusive rights to sell Tupperware in Florida.
From 1951-1958, she headed up sales at Tupperware and she's credited with spurring the company's growth by becoming the glamorous face of the brand, which was targeting other housewives.
As well as being the first woman to ever appear on the cover of BusinessWeek, Brownie also gave demonstrations to editors at Vogue and Glamour.
Show and tell...then buy: Rise of the Tupperware Party
Pictured: UK residents attend a Tupperware party in 1963. The brand had come to the UK just two years before
Tupperware adverts from the 1950s, urging housewives to throw their own parties to buy and sell the products
Women attend a Tupperware party, hosted to market the new brand of plastic containers, in 1955
Just like Avon Ladies in the UK, Tupperware began offering housewives the chance to become 'consultants' and sell the products to local families in the 1950s.
In her role as Vice President of Marketing, Brownie even wrote her own 'manual' for recruits - including the 'urgent musts' of any successful Tupperware party.
According to the New York Post, Brownie wrote that the atmosphere of the party should be 'relaxing' because the 'social spirit of a party tends to lower sales resistance of those present'.
Wise went on to write that 'it is a proven fact that you will sell more to a group of 15 women than you will sell to them individually'.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Tupperware Parties were the only way in which shoppers could purchase the food storage containers.
An 1950s magazine advert for the parties read: 'There's nothing quite like Tupperware for refrigerator, freezer, cupboard or table.
An advert urging housewives to host Tupperware parties which appeared in a US magazine in the 1960s
'Only Tupperware has the patented Tupper Seal - keeps stored foods so fresh, so long... and yet it looks so attractive on your table, too!
'Millions of women each year are introduced to Tuperware's work-saving wonder-world by the popular home party plan.
'Invite your friends over for a Tupperware party and receive a lovely gift just for being a hostess!'
At the time, hostesses would receive free products based on how much they had sold at their event.
Writing for the Emporia Gazette in 1960, columnist Irene Corbally Kuhn described a Tupperware party she attended in Queens, New York.
She said: 'The evening started with games, and all the women taking a night off from husbands, housework and children, got right into the spirit of the occasion.
'Only soft drinks and cookies were served — this is an unwritten law so that no one is tempted to overreach herself socially or financially.
Pictured: a 1965 advert for Tupperware. In the 1950s and 1960s, Tupperware Parties were the only way in which shoppers could purchase the food storage containers
'Mrs Stegmaier showed the new things, discussed new ways of using them. The party lasted two hours, and when it was over, the women ordered what they needed. One of the guests announced she'd like to be a hostess next month.'
In her 1999 book Tupperware: The Promise Of Plastic In 1950s America, Dr Alison Clarke wrote: 'There was a strong philosophy in Tupperware of women being totally supportive to women. It was like a big sisterhood.'
The popularity of Tupperware parties waned as the number of housewives fell dramatically and women entered the workforce in droves.
Suddenly, eating out was easier than home cooking and Tupperware was no longer needed to store leftovers in.
Global reach: How Tupperware became storage go-to
In 1961, the first Tupperware party was hosted in the UK. Four years later, the company had launched in Japan, Australia and Singapore.
Speaking to the BBC, Dr Alison Clarke discussed the international appeal of the range of food storage containers - which was being developed in different shapes, sizes and colours.
Shopper in Target's San Bruno store in California browses the Tupperware aisle and inspects the new launches
A 1980 advert for Tupperware with the taglinge 'where work and pleasure come together'. In this period, the popularity of Tupperware parties had waned
