The Tragic Fall of the Tupperware Brand

Most children of my generation are quite familiar with searching through a cabinet filled with plastic Tupperware containers and lids to find the right match for packing up leftovers. The ubiquity of the Tupperware container defined the experiences of generations of families from the post-World War II era through the Seventies and Eighties and up through the turn of the Century. Spurred to tremendous popularity by a revolutionary marketing strategy that introduced easy-to-use and often unusually colorful products aimed to keep foods and drinks fashionably fresh, Tupperware containers seemed to be in every household in America. Unfortunately, the Tupperware Brand, once it lost its market leader status, was unable to keep up in the modern-day, post-pandemic market. It recently filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware.

The Tupperware container was invented in 1942 by Earl Tupper in Leominster, Massachusetts. Tupper, a chemist, used waste polyethylene slag generated from DuPont’s oil refining process to develop plastic containers that could keep foods fresh. His first bell-shaped container was formally introduced in 1946. His product line quickly expanded to cover a variety of container designs, sizes and shapes offered in a spectrum of bright colors. These products became very popular with families struggling after the war, as his containers helped save money by greatly reducing food waste. In 1949, Tupper received U.S. Patent No. 2,487,400 to protect his “burping seal”, covering the airtight and leak-proof nature of his polyethylene container lids.

The Tupperware Brand exploded in popularity in the 1950s by essentially creating a new marketing model. For decades, Tupperware was never sold in retail stores. Sales relied on independent sales representatives. The brand became most associated with Tupperware Parties, where a Tupperware “representative” was typically a housewife (instead of a door-to-door salesman), who would host parties in her home for her neighbors and friends, showing off the entire catalog of products in all the new designs and colors on offer. Based on the sales made during the party, the “representative” would be paid a commission.

As the Tupperware Brand and its line of products grew, the Tupperware name became synonymous with the post-war zeitgeist, symbolizing independence and empowerment for the traditional nuclear housewife who could earn money while maintaining a domestic image. Similarly, children grew up subconsciously associating the Tupperware Brand with all aspects of life, from packing a lunch for the road, to making juice from concentrate, or simply storing extra bits and bobs in a utility drawer in the kitchen.

While the tremendous growth of the Tupperware Brand can be attributed to an innovative product introduced at the right time and a revolutionary marketing strategy, the downfall of the brand is likely due to a business model guilty of resting on its laurels and refusing to adapt to the times. In Tupperware’s bankruptcy filings, the company estimated $500 million to $1 billion in assets, with $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities. When key Tupperware patents expired in the 1980s, the market was flooded with competitors in the plastic food storage container market, such as Rubbermade and Glad. Tupperware’s market share quickly plummeted. Unlike Tupperware, these competitors sold products in grocery and department stores. While the Tupperware Party was extremely popular in the pre-digital era, it lost much of its luster with the growth of big box stores like Walmart and Target, and even more so with expansion into online commerce. Tupperware started selling by direct mail catalogs in the 1990s and eventually began selling in Target in the 2000s, but by that time, the brand was unable to recapture its market share. Even today, Tupperware has been slow to capitalize on online digital sales. When announcing its bankruptcy filing, Tupperware noted it plans to continue operations and has opened a 30-day bidding process to find a buyer for the entire company.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem likely that Tupperware will ever be able to return to its position as a market leader if it even survives its bankruptcy. Instead, the Tupperware Brand and products are likely resigned to becoming nostalgic memories from a bygone era.