Love for Tupperware wasn’t enough to save it from bankruptcy

For almost eight decades Tupperware containers were a kitchen staple. The sturdy, “burping” bowls held not just leftovers but cherished family recipes. “Tupperware drawers” overflowed with lidded containers of all shapes and colors. And families passed down their Tupperware through generations as unlikely and often stained heirlooms.

But the bankruptcy of the ubiquitous household brand — citing a sales slump triggered by evolving shopping behaviors and increased competition — showed that consumers’ age-old love affair with the container company hasn’t been reflected in its recent finances.

Tupperware will seek court approval to start a sale process for the business to protect its brand and advance its “transformation into a digital-first, technology-led company.”

But it was the brand’s very analog beginning — one book described Tupperware parties as an early social network — that made it so recognizable.

To many, Tupperware is more than just plastic. It holds not just food but also memories.

Ritasha Gupta of New Delhi was raised in a home filled with Tupperware. Her mother, Ritu, was an area manager for the company for 20 years, selling, using, and promoting its sprawling array of products.

“I grew up with it all around me,” Gupta said of the plastic containers. “At times, I felt like the Tupperware boxes were more precious than I was,” she joked.

A childhood packed with plastic didn’t stop Gupta from embracing the containers as an adult. “My kitchen is fully Tupperware-ized,” she said. “The bankruptcy news is heartbreaking for both me and my mom because of the deep sentimental connection we have with the brand.”

On social media, the bankruptcy news was followed by stories of the products’ longevity: containers from the 1970s that have “lasted forever” or a 35-year-old Tupperware brand peeler that is “still sharp.” Some said that is because the brand is so durable that they haven’t felt the need to keep stocking up. “Why would I buy more?” one person wrote, as another called them “quality products that don’t need to be replaced.”

“My mother was a Tupperware lady in the 70s & she did really well,” read one X post. “The story of how Tupperware helped women gain independence is fascinating.”

Earl Silas Tupper invented Tupperware in 1946, but it was single mother Brownie Wise who boosted the product’s popularity across the nation, hosting household gatherings where she would promote and sell the sealable bowls. Impressed by her sales figures, Tupper removed his product from store shelves and made Wise vice president of a subsidiary known as “Tupperware Home Parties.”

From 1951, Tupperware became a source of female empowerment, as “Tupperware ladies” earned money holding parties in their homes and neighborhoods, selling the containers and recruiting other women to do the same.

Wise went on to become the first woman ever to appear on the cover of Business Week.

In recent years, the brand that has become a stand-in for a whole product category has faced competition from cheaper alternatives, even as it attempted to gain visibility by adapting to direct-to-consumer sales and marketing itself in stores like Target.

Tupperware’s sales have decreased fairly consistently over the past decade. In 2022, the company made about $1.3 billion, roughly half the net sales Tupperware Brands made back in 2014.

Last year, Tupperware announced it had “substantial doubt” it could survive and admitted it was struggling to stay afloat. A debt restructuring raised hopes for a second chance. But ultimately that plan failed to sustain the company. Tupperware said Tuesday that it will seek court approval to continue operating during the bankruptcy process, including continuing to pay its employees, as well as compensating vendors and suppliers for goods and services provided on or after the filing date, The Washington Post reported.

Cat Angelaki, a Greek architect, expressed sadness over the bankruptcy, saying Tupperware was a core part of her childhood. Her family’s containers held cookies, stored butter, and safely transported her mother’s cheese pies to the beach for family trips by the sea. “Every day when my mum was cooking there were Tupperware on the table.”

“It is like losing a tradition,” she said.