Tupperware: The Go-To Plastic

FOR GENERATIONS NOW, Tupperware, those brightly-coloured plastic containers so cherished by mothers all over the world, has been a kitchen staple. Globally, our food may have varied. But the containers that held it were probably Tupperwares. It was—and is – airtight, and, in the words of Cosmo Kramer in one particular memorable episode of Seinfeld, it “locks in the freshness” of meals. It is no surprise that Tupperwares got passed down like prized heirlooms, and became one of those rare brands whose name, in common usage, came to represent an entire category of products.

But the love, it appears, hasn’t passed down. Tupperware, the company behind the containers, recently filed for bankruptcy citing evolving shopping habits and increased competition.

Tupperware became a rage in post-war America and elsewhere through its concept of “Tupperware parties”, where housewives hosted others and sold the products to them directly. But that model doesn’t work anymore. More women work now, and there is also increased competition from other brands. The firm had also failed to keep abreast with new consumer behaviour. It was only in 2022, for instance, that it set up a storefront on Amazon and began selling in popular US chains like Target. “In stark contrast to the early days of the company, nearly everyone now knows what Tupperware is, but fewer people know where to find it,” bemoaned Tupperware’s Chief Restructuring Officer Brian J Fox, in the papers filing for bankruptcy.

When Tupperware first came into the market, it solved a problem faced across all kitchens—how do you keep your leftovers fresh? This was particularly pressing at a time when refrigerators were still expensive and yet to enter most households. The person behind the products, an amateur inventor named Earl Tupper, was working in a plastics manufacturing factory during World War II, experimenting with polyethylene, a waste product of oil-refining, when he eventually found a way to mould the substance to create light and unbreakable plastic dishes. In 1949, he went a step further and created the “Tupper seal” lids that made his containers air and watertight. But the products did not take off immediately. That happened a few years later, when a single mother named Brownie Wise came along, with her idea of Tupperware parties, where the products could be sold exclusively at gatherings for women. An entire new subsidiary was put in place under her where women could start their own home-based Tupperware businesses and to recruit others to do the same.

Academics in recent years have viewed this aspect as a source of female empowerment, and claimed that it played an important role in bringing women into the workforce in post-war America. Whether or not this was true, Tupper himself did not give the impression of being a feminist. He fired Wise a few years later with a paltry severance fee, having grown fed up of her high visibility, it is said, and cashed a big cheque himself when he sold the firm to another company (Rexall Drug and Chemical Company), and retired to an island in Costa Rica, where he died in 1983.

The firm saw a bit of resurgence during the pandemic, when more people, it is said, took up cooking and baking at home during that period. But that was temporary. And last year, it had spoken about its financial difficulties.

To many, Tupperware held more than just food. It held memories, too. And this is particularly so in liberalised India, where the desi parents’ all-consuming love for plastic containers made the products very popular, even as their sales were ebbing in the US. Ever since the news of the bankruptcy broke, X (formerly Twitter) has been awash with jokes and stories about the products’ longevity.

Tupperware of course isn’t going away anywhere—at least not anytime soon. It will continue operating during the bankruptcy process, it has said, and it is looking to protect its brand and advance its “transformation into a digital-first, technology-led company.”

Tupperware may be in the business of creating durable and long-lasting products. But as its tale shows, unless you keep up with the times, durability isn’t necessarily something that might be written in the company’s own fortunes.

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