Tupperware. This name probably reminds you of your childhood days. The nostalgia. Running around in school with Tupperware boxes. Or taking out cookies from a Tupperware container at home. Many of us have those sweet old memories. But Tupperware, as a company is not doing so well. Lets dive deep into the story of Tupperware.
Tupperware was established in the year 1946, by Earl Tupper. He started off using polyethylene pellets from DuPont to build his products. People had just began adopting plastic post the second world war in the USA. Tupperware had the advantage of one of the first adapters of this trend.
The famous Tupperware burp, letting out the air from the container before sealing it, helped preserve food for longer days. Even though the products were superior, people were initially hesitant to use plastic containers to store food.
Enter Brownie Wise. After the war ended she worked as a salesperson for Stanley Home Products using something called the party plan marketing system. She would conduct home parties which women attended and then showcase the products and sell them. She would even throw them to show how durable they were. In my opinion it was the first forms of influencer marketing. Eventually she started selling Tupperware products and did really well.
Earl Tupper went to her to learn about how she was able to sell so many products. He then asked her to join Tupperware. She then became the vice president of Tupperware Home Parties in the 1950s, which at the time was a huge thing considering that women did not really hold any executive positions.
Soon, they stopped selling their products in the stores and moved completely to selling them via the home parties. It was a sort of multi level marketing. 90% of the sellers were women. The sales skyrocketed and everyone wanted to be associated with Tupperware. House Beautiful magazine called it fine art.
Everything was going well for Tupperware, until the early 2000’s. This is when the digital age had begun to take off. The company did not adapt to the digital medium in the initial days and had to suffer because of it. Now that the society had progressed women were working in different fields and industries. This led to a downfall in their salesforce.
Even though Tupperware has now adapted to the newer markets and started selling their products on Amazon and Target stores, its pretty late. Many other brands have popped up and the rise of local supermarkets selling cheap plastic containers have also hit the company negatively. With plastic being adopted widely, people now do not mind using ice cream containers for storing food.
The newer generation too does not know much about Tupperware and are unaware about the legacy it has built over the days. The older folks might still go buy Tupperware but in order to keep the business running the younger generation of people too should be buying Tupperware.
The global move away from plastic too has impacted the company. Though there might not be many alternatives at present, eventually the company would have to innovate itself to survive.
The company also had trouble paying its debt and announced that it had hired financial advisors to help improve its financial conditions. The company announced in 2023 that it could be close to bankruptcy due to dwindling sales. The stock prices have now plummeted from $36 in 2020 to around $1 now. Though the meme stock craze did push the prices up a little, it hasn’t helped much.
Even though the company still makes superior products and has an old school loyal customer base, it might not be helpful since it never adapted to the changing markets. Its quite hard to imagine how the company is going to turn itself around, but if things happen to be the way they are then the day is not far where they would shut down.
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