Oh, no! No more Tupperware parties??

https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/tupperware-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy/727361

Can't say I've ever been to a Tupperware party.  I suspect they're pretty wild!  Women everywhere!  Ah well.  Another opportunity squandered. 

This isn't their first application for bankruptcy. It is wild to hear that in a world of moldable plastics, one of the OGs is having a hard time making it. Sounds like their failure to pivot to modern marketing and advertising gimmicks (which honestly, I can't recall the last time I saw an advertisement for anything in that product category) could be to fault on top of some other poor leadership decisions. I've been trying to collect their retro stuff and it's never on the shelves at the local Target, they were a staple in rural central Florida with their HQ there. I remember going on a field trip there as a kid LOL.  

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

As I recall, their stuff was always on the high side, price-wise.  Undoubtedly it was good quality, but as is the case in so many businesses, the overseas manufacture and sale of much cheaper knock-offs has hurt their business.

My guess is that it's these lazy kids nowadays that don't want to work.   Back in my day, we at least had editors and spoke proper English!   Bah!

Oh, wait, when is that ad from? :)

Everything is single or limited use disposable containers now. I refuse to buy them. 

The last set of storage containers I bought were glass with gasketed lids. 

DirtyBird222 said:

This isn't their first application for bankruptcy. It is wild to hear that in a world of moldable plastics, one of the OGs is having a hard time making it. Sounds like their failure to pivot to modern marketing and advertising gimmicks (which honestly, I can't recall the last time I saw an advertisement for anything in that product category) could be to fault on top of some other poor leadership decisions. I've been trying to collect their retro stuff and it's never on the shelves at the local Target, they were a staple in rural central Florida with their HQ there. I remember going on a field trip there as a kid LOL.  

I think this is the reason. They didn't adapt. We have Snapware, it works better and is cheaper.

Adapt or die.

I see more people using the Pyrex glass ones with a plastic lid,  hard to sanitize plastic.

We have a lot of 35+ year Tupperware crap that still performs as expected.

Toyman! said:

Everything is single or limited use disposable containers now. I refuse to buy them. 

The last set of storage containers I bought were glass with gasketed lids. 

 

Same here!

Put your keys in the bowl. 

Below is a vintage Tupperware container from the late 70s/early 80s.  It still works perfectly.

Who knew that making a product that lasts 40 years and still works would make sure you didn't meet your sales goals.

Mr_Asa said:

Below is a vintage Tupperware container from the late 70s/early 80s.  It still works perfectly.

Who knew that making a product that lasts 40 years and still works would make sure you didn't meet your sales goals.

We had that one–plus pretty much everything else that Tupperware offered. Can’t recall ever seeing one break, either. 

It's tough to compete in todays world based on quality.  I still have some tupperware, but I can buy a 4 pack of containers from the grocery store for five bucks, and they last me for months, if not years.  

Unfortunate.

Mr_Asa said:

Who knew that making a product that lasts 40 years and still works would make sure you didn't meet your sales goals.

They should have added different containers to their product line outside of food storage.

Corning made thermal shock resistant glass for railway lanterns that sharply reduced demand for replacements, but the formula for that laid the basis for Pyrex kitchenware.

Never fear. It lives on in the form of a remix party.

Mr_Asa said:

Below is a vintage Tupperware container from the late 70s/early 80s.  It still works perfectly.

Who knew that making a product that lasts 40 years and still works would make sure you didn't meet your sales goals.

I have some of those that date to the early 1970s, still in fine shape.

I heard once the key to a successful Tupperware party was to invite the husbands, and serve alcohol.  After a few drinks they'll be buying stuff like there's no tomorrow.

Kramer:  "It has the patented burp that locks in freshness!"

We had some Tupperware in the house in the 80s, but the second word in reduce/reuse/recycle is reuse.

We mostly use old Chinese takeout soup containers now.  Some of them have to be ten years old.  And when you have a "Livin' in the Fridge" incident with forgotten leftovers that have turned into a new civilization, you can just throw it out with no monetary loss.

I didn't realize how popular they were outside the US. There were two shows about them on the radio recently about Tuperware in Britain and India. 

Okay, so story time.

It's 2008. My wife and I had recently relocated to the United States from Korea and were trying to make a go of it. My wife, who has a degree in theater management (yes, really) found a great job working at a local arts center. I was working as a manager for a personal training company.

There was a live show that my wife's venue was hosting: Dixie's Tupperware Party. It was (and is) an actual Tupperware party, but in the guise of a performance by the drag performer Dixie Longate. My wife wanted me to attend this show with her but I had no interest in it, and I'd been working long hours. She offered to take me to dinner first; she was going to a local Thai restaurant with coworkers before the show. I didn't want to do this either and said that I didn't just want to sit there bored while she and her coworkers talked shop. She cajoled and needled me, though, and finally the promise of a free Thai meal won out.

The dinner was awful. I sat there bored for an hour while she and her coworkers talked shop and ignored me. When it came time to pay the check, oops! turns out that my wife conveniently forgot her wallet so I had to pick up the tab. Then it was time to go to the show; I didn't want to go to the show in the first place and I certainly wasn't in the mood after a lousy time at dinner that I also had to buy. 

So, of course, we went to the show. Dixie's Tupperware Party - remember, this is an actual Tupperware party - is an interactive event with the audience. Dixie picked up as soon as I entered that perhaps I was in a bit of a sour mood and said something a little snarky to me about it. Y'know what? Game on. So now we're at this show in front of probably 100 or 200 people, including my wife's new colleagues and coworkers and I decide I'm going to make it a bit spicy and embarrass my wife a bit. I start having some fun with Dixie and making a Thing out of it by being suggestive and a bit bawdy, much to the delight of the audience and the chagrin of my wife. At one point Dixie strolled by and I grabbed her ass and exclaimed, "I haven't had this much action since prison!"

My wife was mortified but ultimately conceded that she probably deserved it.

Fast forward about six months and the recession hit and my job evaporated. Well, it's not so much that I lost my job as that I discovered a bunch of financial impropriety and called the state Attorney General's office on my way out, but that left me jobless at a bad time. The tech director at the venue my wife was working at found out that I was looking for work, though, and gave me a call. He was at that Tupperware show and hired me on as an overhire tech at the theater without so much as an interview, stating that he knew firsthand that I could roll with the punches and make the best of things. Hey, that's great! At least it put me in a job; I figured I'd be there about 6 months, maybe 7 before moving on.

Well, while working there I picked up some skills and became a regular. I also met other people, which led to a job rigging for another company and generally working at heights and with lifting equipment in theaters, arenas, and other venues. At this I excelled and worked my way into a senior lead position for a company; I specialized in difficult rigging projects and lifting equipment repair. In 2019 I lost that job as my position was being eliminated, however, so I fell back to a side gig I started in 2016 running a small fab shop. Well, word got out that I was still in the city and old contacts started calling me to do and run specialty rigs for them, but for WAY more money than I'd been making prior. In 2020 I branched out during COVID and started a company doing construction for shade sails, thus combining fabrication and rigging; we're based in Phoenix and there's a real need for shade. However, people still kept calling me for rigging so I started pursuing that a bit more.

Now it's 2024 and I've just spun the rigging division of my company into its own company. I have a dozen employees and several quite good clients. I'm actually typing this from a hotel room in another state: As of this week my company is now national and we provide theatrical and industrial rigging solutions to not just a state or regional market, but the United States.  We handle all sorts of bizarre requests for equipment moving and construction rigging that other companies and teams can't do. I have some incredibly knowledgeable and skilled employees who absolutely elevate us into a professional position where we Get Things Done.

This all started in 2008 because of a stupid Tupperware party. 

We reuse the plastic containers that Hillshire Farms lunch meat comes in. When they crack from use, we put it in the recycle and we always have lunch meat in the house. Endless supply... they work great for holding nuts and bolts and screws when working on the car in the garage too