Tupperware looking less airtight than you'd think Container giant (actual containers, not the virtualization tech) Tupperware shocked investors when it said yesterday that its business was looking less airtight than you might expect. Yes, apparently people invest in Tupperware. Once a pioneer of stretching dinner into tomorrow and the next day and the next, the average …
A friend of mine at university told me one Friday that she was going to a ‘tupperware’ party that night. She was less than thrilled to discover that it actually was a Tupperware party and she was being asked to buy food storage boxes. She was expecting plastic items of an entirely different variety from the ones she was offered. Think of expecting Ann Summers (Adam and Eve for our US readers) and instead getting John Lewis (Crate and Barrel) instead, she was not amused by this in the slightest.
I was though.
Was when pyrex invented a tupperware-like lid on a series of rectangular oven dishes. Any leftovers from a dish baked in the oven can be sealed tight (once the dish has cooled) stored in fridge or freezer, then microwaved with the lid still on next time you fancy an earlier dish.
"That way I don't have to heat up three quarters of a Lasagna just for one serving."
Lasagna is a great dish for making a big pan of and freezing for later. I have a stack of small containers just to do that and will portion out the lasagna into single servings. It's easier to Tetris them into the freezer that way.
I keep meaning to pick up one of those little frames that hold zip loc bags open, for portioning out. If I cook something in my slow cooker, I make sure it's full and portion out the rest for lazy days, and Tupp, sorry, generic branded plastic containers use up a bit too much room in the freezer.
Yes, and no... I have a whole bunch of this pyrex stuff, and the lids don't fit for shit... just hand washing them warped the lids, now they rarely get used. Besides with Tupperware, you buy it once*, and it last a looong time. Up until my last move, in 2021, I had Tupperware from my Grandma's estate, she died in '97 and had the stuff as far back as I can remember.
*It usually had to be bought at a Tupperware party too, not sure how many people were throwing Tupperware parties in lockdown.
Apparently that's part of the problem for the business, people have inherited reliable Tupperware from previous generations and they are not buying new stuff.
I wonder if they could "discover" some cancer causing chemical that they used 50 years ago, so you have to have the old stuff taken away to put nuclear waste in, unless that is worse...
It's not the glass that warps - it's the lids.
The one's he's talking about are the rubber kind, not the clear ceramic kind used for actual baking/showing at dinner.
There are some Pyrex sets sold with the blue color (or colour) rubber lids that snap on and create a (tolerable) seal for the fridge.
Some sets even come with both the rubber and glass lids.
> ... then microwaved with the lid still on next time you fancy an earlier dish.
Um, might that not risk actually blowing the bloody doors off?
(But probably make less of a mess of the oven than the exploding aubergine when I forgot to pierce the damn thing, though to be fair it wasn't a microwave oven.)
I'd say the death knell was when tupperware stopped with the classic design and moved into a bunch of thinner, cheaper, worse and more disposable containers. The original ones were skookum, fit for purpose and didn't shatter if you dropped it full of sugar or whatever. Lids made a nice snap and didn't have the modern tendency to wear overly hard on the sealing edge. Modern plastic containers are shamefully lacking in comparison.
I still use an original tupperware strainer (the yellow ones)
Rubbermaid was teetering on the brink due to partnering up with Walmart. When oil prices shot up in the mid 2000's and Rubbermaid advised Walmart that prices would be going up, Walmart insisted that prices go down. The problem was that Rubbermaid over-leveraged themselves to keep up with Walmart's ordering levels and it cost them their orginal factory, some very large injection molding machines (which sold to a Chinese concern and were removed to China) and a heap of tooling. It makes me wonder if Tupperware shot themselves in the same foot in their deal with Target. I have Tupperware stuff that is decades old and is still good. Newer plastic kitchenware seems to go all manky in a couple of years and has to be binned. Either that or it just dries out and snaps.
>> Ah yes, Tupperware
>> Party like it's 1979...
> More like 1959.
Most of our household storage containers pre-date the wedding, so pre-1979.
We are scrambling to collect the few damaged or missing lids before supplies vanish.
I remember Mom having T-ware in 1962.
Yeah we have oleo tubs and they work 1/10th as good as the real stuff.
And yes we also hoard automatic bread-machines and GEORGE FOREMAN® Grills. And the Aladdin/ThermoServ Coffee Mugs. And pipes for 1996 Honda minivan. (1991 MX5 Miata parts are easier to find than for the original Odyssey.)
Back then I had a biiig fridge and tiny freezer.
Now I've got a big Chest Freezer (I won't tell you what I keep in there mwaaahahaha).
Actually, I will... I bought 8x Really Useful Boxes that are a perfect fit (allowing for ice build-up) for proper stock rotation of meat and bread. Enough for a six month Brexocalyptic shortage.
"All well as long as Brexocalyptica doesn't cut your mains."
My plan this year is to have a chest freezer in the garage that runs from solar/battery. The backup will be mains power if there's a long stretch of little sun. Chest freezers are nicely efficient so it's easy to power them in unconventional ways. To lose a freezer full of food would take a string of dark days and the mains being off as well.
Probably not, if anything like our family, when visitors are coming they tend to stock up on EVERYTHING, after all - running out of ANYTHING when guests are there is considered a Cardinal Sin and Totally Unforgivable ("Oh the shame, we ran out of lemon scented hand wipes while uncle xxxx was here").
Therefore clearing out the old stuff in the freezer (apart from being a god idea) makes space for all of the new stuff that doesn't get eaten (like the 3rd/4th turkey or the leftover leftover leftover curry - just so it doesn't go to waste...).
They didn't see the end of the stay-at-home housewife with time to attend or throw these parties? And they didn't see the inevitable end of their patent and the entry of low quality pretenders into the market? Which some aggressive brand maintenance and product differentiation could have forestalled.
I can't recall the last time I'd seen a Tupperware TV ad. Claiming that the original was better than the newcomers.
That's just one factor, another is that social security safety nets mean that Direct Sales orgs are finding it near impossible to replace salespeople in the Western World. In South America, Africa and some parts of Asia, there are salespeople coming on board. Traditionally, Direct Selling orgs have a very low, even zero, barrier to entry so were good for people looking to pick up some extra cash quick. Safety nets reduce the need for the quick cash option (and pay day loans).
Of course, in the West, is where the selling price is, but with the associated costs.
Another factor is smaller and shrinking social networks. Or perhaps bigger social networks but with less face to face contact. Now entire social relationships are conducted virtually. Not conducive to a "at home party". Also, smaller houses make it less possible to host a large group in a party.
Specifically for Tupperware, almost the entire management team was replaced (ca 2017) with predominately those of Latin American background. However, one might think the best management team was one with a rich variety of backgrounds, not just any particular culture. Connected with, and worked very well in South America, but Asian and European sales tanked. Was that due to not understanding other identities? Or just being blinkered to the possibilities?
Tupperware isn't alone in finding demographic change hard to navigate.
(MBA thesis on Direct Selling orgs and digital transformation).
If they haven't already, then can they computerize the product? Go "Internet of Things" on it. Very last decade, yes, but stay with me. Put RFID chips or QR codes on the boxes - or more maybe - so that the container can know what's in it and how fresh it is and maybe whether it's been stored correctly in the fridge or freezer. And then have an app on your phone which reminds you of food that "needs to be eaten" and of which bleedin' box it is in, by color or pattern or in fact knowing what shelf it's on and what side. Or by using the camera.
And patent all of that, even though I've said it already. Perhaps someone else has patented it.
We occasionally get a takeaway.
Rather than instantly binning the plastic containers the food came in, we wash and re-use them (some may be a bit discoloured e.g. turmeric or similar yellowing but who cares). Although they are a bit flimsy, they last for quite a few uses (and are also good as a protective sandwich container on rare visits to the office instead of WFH)
So never really have to buy plastic containers for general use * (though we do have a few "top quality" ones knocking around that are designed to not leak even if you turn them upside down, throw them around etc. and are designed for liquid / semi-liquid content, back when our child did cookery at school & various "wet" ingredients required to be taken in)
* general use does not include microwaving containers with food in - don't really use microwave, prefer hob & oven cooking (only have microwave for when mother in law stays as she likes to cook certain foods in a microwave)
Rather than instantly binning the plastic containers the food came in, we wash and re-use them (some may be a bit discoloured e.g. turmeric or similar yellowing but who cares). Although they are a bit flimsy, they last for quite a few uses (and are also good as a protective sandwich container on rare visits to the office instead of WFH)
Have you checked what type of plastic they are? A lot of takeaway containers are not suitable for re-use as food containers.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
