A housewife hosts a Tupperware party in the 1950s. (Image courtesy of Click Americana)

June 2023

Tupperware: An American icon

A wise addition to Tupperware

In the postwar years, when more homes began cropping up in newly designed American suburbs, convenience was king, and Tupperware added ease to meal preparation and storage. Tupper joined forces with Brownie Wise, a woman who had sold home products at parties that proved to be highly popular (he would eventually hire Wise to be his vice president of marketing in 1951). For Tupper, who initially had tried selling his new Tupperware in department stores with little success, the idea of marketing his new Tupperware at home parties was a logical next step. The “Tupperware party” was an event that proved to become synonymous with the product, finding its way into American homes in the following years.

“The company had tremendous cultural impact,” Venkatesh Shankar, marketing professor at Texas A&M, said in the April 25, 2023, article on CNN.com. “The famous neighborhood house parties where Tupperware products were sold by the host to her family and friends was a new way of marketing, combining socializing with direct sales.”

Indeed, the Tupperware party was an ideal innovation of the time.

“The practice dove-tailed brilliantly with the rise of post-war suburbia: women had bigger homes, bigger kitchens, more money to spend, more children to feed, and more responsibilities to keep house,” the article continues. “Into that climate came Tupperware. Its first milky-white plastic product, the “Wonder Bowl,” cost 39 cents, according to Smithsonian Magazine; the museum has a huge Tupperware collection. Over the years, tangerine orange, baby blue and pink, and kiwi green products followed.”

The parties themselves were glamorous, upscale social events – much like an afternoon tea party, according to the article, housewives dressed in their very best dresses, gloves, heels, and hats. The host would carefully present her wares, stacking them delicately in order to show them off. Since this was one of the few socially acceptable ways for women to make money, it proved to be a popular way for housewives to earn income.

Dedication to the brand

Brownie Wise, meanwhile, saw her star rise within the company, combining her sales knowledge, charisma, and femininity to build Tupper’s company and its product, enlisting legions of American housewives to assist her in her crusade.

“Wise had inspired a kind of religious devotion to their work,” Bob Kealing, Tupperware scholar and Wise’s biographer, wrote in “Life of the Party: The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built and Lost a Tupperware Party Empire.” “She promised them a better life, and they adored her.”

Tupper took notice but didn’t seem to want the company to become “all about her,” according to Kealing. Tupper fired Wise in 1957.

The success of Tupperware throughout the 1950s and ‘60s shouldered by the brand’s hostesses, led the product to go global, eventually reaching Europe, where hostesses were required to follow a rigid dress code of skirts, stockings and gloves, in keeping with the parties’ feel of an elegant, upscale event. Tupperware proved to be successful in Asian countries, too, in the decades following the product’s peak years.

Sagging sales

Tupperware sales numbers began a slight dip in the 1980s, throughout numerous acquisitions and mergers. The brand saw its sales continue that trend toward the turn of the century, with the number of salespeople shrinking to just under 2 million by the end of the 2000s. In the past five years, Tupperware has withdrawn its operations in Middle Eastern and European countries. In an effort to boost sales, Tupperware began selling its products in Target stores in recent years with disappointing results, unable to keep up with competitors such as Pyrex, Rubbermaid, and Ziploc, as well, as the changing needs of a younger consumer base.

In April 2023, Tupperware announced that the company needed more money soon so it could remain in operation. And though the company’s next path could be the one that leads to a bankruptcy filing, its name, and nostalgia will endure with those who still own those pieces they bought or received as gifts so many years ago.

“The most valuable thing Tupperware owns is its brand,” John Talbot, business professor at Indiana University said in the CNN article. “Like Blockbuster, the Tupperware brand will never go away,” he said. “I suspect it could file for bankruptcy and if there is a buyer for it, Target would be a great option to revive the brand with new designs and a new marketing plan.”

“It’s been there all my life”

Sellers and collectors alike shared their memories of Tupperware following the news of the company’s struggles – and showed that even in cyberspace, there exists a demand for the beloved bowls, pitchers, and storage containers.

“I rarely deal in newer stock,” collector and eBay seller Karen St. Esprit, 68, of Beaver County, PA, said in an April 23 New York Post article. “I really love vintage and not the new Tupperware.”

Another Tupperware enthusiast and former longtime Tupperware party host, Debbie Angus from Australia, told one news station that the products have always been around her household.

“It’s been there all my life. My mother had Tupperware,” Angus said. “It would be very sad if it folded, I think.”