As the iconic US company Tupper files for bankruptcy, let's take a look back at how it became an integral part of the world's cultural heritage.
Karen Watters from Michigan was 18 years old and newly married with a young child when she began selling Tupperware in the 1970s. "I couldn't even get a credit card back then, and the bank wouldn't give it to me despite my working status. Those were surely different times for women," she said. Until 1974, married women in the US were not allowed to apply for a credit card in their own name.
She organized social gatherings for her friends and fellow acquaintances called "Tupperware parties," earning a commission from each sale. She then utilized the profits to support her husband's university studies. "He was studying electrical engineering and I purchased all his necessary tools. His equipment was obtained from the income I generated through the sale of Tupperware. We actually needed the funds."
For Watters, like many other women, selling sealed plastic containers was a means to sustain her family. The Tupperware party, a new sales approach launched in the 1950s, enabled numerous women to establish their own businesses and empowerment initiatives.
The era of the Great Depression also highlighted the importance of domestic work and the crucial role it played in sustenance of countless households, and it did not diminish the relevance of those efforts to the history books. It even played a contributing factor in many homemakers aspiring to become entrepreneurs.
A major phenomenon
A business owner and chemist named Earl Tupper produced long-lasting, airtight containers made of flexible plastic by utilizing a leftover byproduct from an industrial process that sealed similarly to a paint can. In 1946, Tupper "had a spark of inspiration while creating molds at a plastics factory," as stated on the company's website.
At first, his containers failed to gain the traction he was expecting. People who managed homes were hesitant to use them due to the affordable yet seemingly low-quality construction and the oiliy texture, as well as their confusion over the need to "burp" the containers to release the air and enable them to seal properly.
It took a large group of amateur salespeople, primarily suburban women, to help the brand gain popularity. Thousands of women in the US, and subsequently, around the world, began launching their own businesses, selling the products at home gatherings known as Tupperware parties. This phenomenon spread rapidly across the US and reached its peak in the 1950s and 60s.
A major factor behind Tupperware's success was Brownie Wise, a single mother with limited formal education, whom Tupper appointed as his vice president and chief sales officer. A sales expert with an innovative approach to marketing, she transformed the brand by developing groundbreaking sales strategies.
Wise had previously worked with a cleaning products company called Stanley Home unpaid, hosting "home parties" – gatherings of housewives and their acquaintances to sell products. Wise soon realized there was a market for Tupperware products at these events as well.
Implementing sales manuals and introducing generous compensation packages attracted more saleswomen to the product, leading to its rapid growth.
The company developed innovative promotional campaigns to motivate their salesforce, offering a range of exciting prizes including, as described by a PBS article, "everything from new electric irons to a trip to Europe with Brownie Wise."
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From homemaker to entrepreneur
The socioeconomic conditions of the 1950s created an ideal environment for the success of this marketing strategy. Women who had entered the workforce during World War II were subsequently forced out and expected to remain at home to care for their children during the post-war baby boom era.
Women who were unable to pursue careers outside the home, as their husbands preferred them to remain within the homemaker role, chose this hobby as a means to gain financial independence as well as to connect with others outside of their daily domestic lives.
A hostess of a social gathering would invite a representative from Tupperware to attend her event, and in return, she would receive complimentary Tupperware products, while the representative would receive a percentage of the sales revenue generated from the products sold through her gathering.
Symbolically, the Tupperware parties thus exerted an impact on and represented the culture of an era at various levels. They enabled homemaker women to gain a sense of autonomy by becoming consultants, managers, and distributors of the product. The parties felt somewhat subversive in a way. But at the same time, the business model reinforced the notion that a woman's primary place was at home.
The completion of belching bowls
The story did not end well for this founding businesswoman. She was dismissed by the company that she had helped establish in 1958 after a disagreement with Tupper, without even receiving any shares in the business.
That same year, Tupper sold the company, calling it Tupperware Home Parties, to Rexall Drug Company for $16 million (€14.3 million), after which he established himself in Costa Rica, where he retired following the success of his brand.
Indeed, the business model saw the products expand rapidly into Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Since then, the brand has predominantly maintained its sales method of mainly being sold the same way, through Tupperware parties, as opposed to retail stores.
Design innovations have been a core element of the brand's strategy: Tupperware has garnered more than 280 design awards for its product designs and usability over the past nearly four decades.
Many companies, including those in the cosmetics and sex toy industries, have followed in Tupperware's footsteps by using the party method to sell their products. With the rise of the gig economy, there are now 7.3 million independent direct sellers in the US, as stated by the Direct Selling Association as of 2023, presenting a wide variety of opportunities for them to choose from.
Although it may mark the close of an era, Tupperware remains part of the lives of millions of people and has become a significant part of the 20th century's history.
Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier
Author: Sarah Hucal
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