The Decline of Tupperware...What Happened?

[Music] Tupperware the classic brand of food storage containers has been having trouble I mean things are looking bad just about any way you want to approach it the company sales have been falling consistently practically cut in half compared to a decade ago it has lost almost all of its value on the stock market over that time dropping from $95 per share to less than a dollar at this point in April of 2023 one of their SEC filings stated that if the company was not able to secure more cash it would likely not be able to

continue operating they later announced that they were hiring financial advisers to figure out how to relieve the issue and they did do some debt restructuring But ultimately Tupperware was forced to file for bankruptcy in September of 2024 citing over a billion dollars in liabilities with only 680 million in assets obviously a troubling ratio I cannot blame the news outlets for taking this opportunity to print all these creative headlines saying the part is over or Tupperware lifts the lid on its financial problems I like that one but honestly I always find it sad when something like

this happens to such an iconic even revolutionary brand I know you might be shocked to hear me use those words to describe it but I promise I am not exaggerating there is so much to respect about Tupperware in this video I want to talk about the history of the brand while outlining what I believe to be five of the biggest reasons behind its decline starting off with Tupperware parties potentially the biggest single reason behind their rise and their fall I think all of this is so interesting Tupperware is named after its inventor Earl Tupper who

started a Plastics Company in the 1930s became successful in the 1940s during World War II by manufacturing plastic parts for gas masks and shortly after the war shifted his Focus to the general public he did it by inventing the plastic food storage containers that he named after himself I cannot tell you much about the exact chemistry of it but the existing Plastics were black brittle smelly while the new type of plastic that Tupper had invented was clear durable and odorless on top of that he invented this patented seal for it that was inspired by Seals

that were used for paint cans and in the end he had an extremely useful line of containers for storing food the issue was that these containers were so revolutionary so unlike anything people had seen before that the customers were intimidated by the idea of having plastic in their home especially touching their food confused by how to use the new seal on the lid and overall not receptive to it at all so the solution was to hold Tupperware parties to get people more familiar with the product and to demonstrate all the advantages of it see following

World War II a record number of people moved out to the suburbs to start a family there was a baby boom and many women were staying home to take care of their children and maintain their house fulltime these were perfect circumstances for a company called Stanley home to start hosting parties to demonstrate and sell their cleaning products one of the people who would demonstrate them was a really good saleswoman named Brownie wise and she was the one who recognized that the format would be successful when applied to Tupperware so she started her own company selling

tupperware at parties before Earl Tupper hired her as VP of marketing at his company to officially adapt the sales strategy that quickly became somewhat of a sensation brownie wise became the person that the public associated with the brand she was famously the first woman to appear on the cover of business week and within a few years there was a network of thousands of independent Consultants hosting these parties to be clear they did not not work for Tupperware but instead received a percentage from the products that they sold and the top sellers will be rewarded with

various bonuses and prizes overall I would say this was a really cool thing for the time it was a fun way for women to make extra money while still maintaining their home and spreading the word about a useful new product the one way to buy Tupperware is a fun way at a tupperware home party however you can see how this marketing strategy has become less effective there are far more women in the workforce and I would not guess that many people are still intimidated by the idea of a plastic food container so given those circumstances

it would probably be smart to have less Reliance on direct to Consumer sales and refocus those efforts toward more popular channels like retail stores and the internet where most people tend to buy this kind of thing I don't mean to sound too critical here but all of this sounds kind of obvious right but Tupperware has been remarkably slow in doing it in the early 1950s when the party started gaining traction the company stopped selling their products and retail stores and have not even tried to return them in a big way until the past few years

it wasn't until 2022 when they finally started selling Tupperware in Target stores and in 2024 they started selling it in Macy's in the 1990s the company specifically had a policy restricting independent Consultants from selling Tupperware online saying that the in-person demonstrations are far more valuable than anything they can do over the Internet they did start selling products on their own website shortly after but never in a big enough way even today only 133% of their products are available on their website and it took until 2022 to start selling them on Amazon in tupperware's bankruptcy filing

they do recognize the errors but I think almost anyone would agree that these adjustments so far have been too little too late another reason behind their decline is competition from all different angles like I said decades ago when it was first introduced Tupperware was a one-of-a-kind product arguably better than any other alternative on the market and that is not quite the case today in the 1980s rubber Maids started offering comparable products splitting the market in a major way for the first time and that market has since been split in so many other directions the word

itself Tupperware has become almost synonymous with food storage containers like people use that word to describe any container like that right going into this video you may not have even realized that Tupperware is an actual brand instead of a general term and that is an issue for them picture that when someone searches the word Tupperware on the internet the results are filled with competing Brands it is to a point where Tupperware no longer stands out in the way that it used to and is mostly gotten lost in the shuffle also in the 1990s gladware came

out with disposable containers Ziploc followed soon after and together they took over a sizable portion of that market being that they're typically cheaper and more convenient Tupperware as far as I could tell has always been a quality product that is built to last seriously people used to really value this stuff it almost sounds like a joke but they would pass it down to their children I'm sure that some of the people watching this have Tupperware in their home that has been in their family for decades let me know if that's the case and if you

ever gave food to somebody inside of a tupperware container you better believe that you expected to get that container back but you know sometimes you just want to put food in something and not have to worry about the container so much it is relieving to just throw it away when you're done but when disposable containers were really starting to gain Traction in the early 2000s Tupperware said that they never even considered making that type of product their CEO at the time said I'm holding a disposable pen I will lose two or three of these a

week but my better pens I always know where they are which honestly might be a solid argument but looking back it is hard to see this as anything but a missed opportunity another potential reason behind the decline would be Acquisitions there is so much to this in 1958 I want to mentioned that founder Earl Tupper fired brownie wise he was planning to sell the company I guess he felt she was was too outspoken and that it would be easier to sell it if she was not part of it he did sell it later that year

for $16 million to a company called rexal drug that later changed its name to Dart Industries losing two of the most important people in that same year in 1980 Dart Industries merged with craft one of the biggest mergers in US history at the time but then they separated from each other in 1986 a decade later Tupperware was spun off into its own company and that is how they have operated ever since I know that is a lot I recommend this video I made about craft if you want to hear a little more detail but right

here I'm just theorizing that all of this was distracting and potentially harmful to the brand shortly after that merger with craft is when everything started going downhill for Tupperware especially in the United States by 1992 most of their sales were coming from other countries and they have yet to regain their footing in the US with less than a third of their 2022 sales coming from North America and when Dart and craft separated one of the main reasons was likely because Tupperware was underperforming so much to a point where craft didn't want to be involved with

it and then shortly after Tupperware became its own company it started acquiring unrelated companies mostly involved with beauty products the most notable example is a $560 million deal that they made with Sarah Lee in 2005 that caused them to rename the company Tupperware Brands Corporation to reflect that they had multiple Brands again it could be argued that all of this was distracted ing pulling Tupperware away from their Core Business and maybe even giving up on it to an extent in favor of exploring new things my next reason on the list is probably less significant than

the others but I feel like I should mention some external factors that have been complicating things their CEO made a statement saying the company's financial position has been severely impacted by the challenging macroeconomic environment talking about things like inflation and interest rates the pandemic has likely been a factor with fewer parties and get togethers mean fewer sales for Tupperware along with higher material cost specifically for plastic resin not to mention growing concerns over plastic and its impact on the environment though I do want to make it clear that things had already fallen significantly going into

the pandemic so it may have worsened the situation but is definitely not the root of the issues my final reason is another short one and really more of a summary of everything I've been talking about already but Tupperware it is outdated The Invention the parties the brand everything about it used to be cutting it and impressive but unfortunately none of it has really changed over the years Tupperware hasn't done much to respond to competition they haven't reacted to cultural changes they haven't responded to Consumer preferences or changes in the markets it is like they believe

so much in what they establish that they were afraid to change anything and mess it up right now they're seeking Court approval to sell the company and hopefully preserve the brand and continue operating but sadly it has gotten to a point where I don't think many people would really care all that much if the brand were to disappear tell me if you think otherwise but the brand loyalty is not anywhere near as strong as it used to be and there are so many substitutes and Alternatives when it comes to food storage containers it is going

to be interesting to see how everything plays out and if the Tupperware brand can rebuild but it is going to be quite a process let me know in the comments what are your thoughts about Tupperware as a brand do you view it as more appealing than the others do you think it is worth the price maybe you think it is too hard to find or maybe you didn't realize it existed as a brand at all before today tell me if that's the case and also how do you feel about this bankruptcy personally I hate to

see it happen but at the same time I don't think there's anything all that surprising about it it is difficult for anything to maintain relevance and appeal for so long and tupperware simply didn't do what they needed to to make that happen so any other thoughts you have about Tupperware leave them in the comments I'd like to hear what you have to say thank you for watching [Music]