Tupperware — America’s plastic kingpin, the Michael Jackson of kitchenware — is no more.
Earlier this month, the brand filed for bankruptcy.
Wise’s genius was in recognizing the untapped potential of housewives as both customers and salespeople. In living rooms across America, women were given new authority over their homes — and their finances.
Like Jackson, it was once a star, pioneering multilevel marketing and reaping profits in over 100 countries. No kitchenware made it big like Tupperware. But today, it’s more relic than revolution.
For decades, moms, grandmas, aunts, me-maws, and church ladies swore by their Tupperware, its cracked lids and warped bowls symbols of household lifetimes. In the 1950s, these inflexible bowls became a quiet catalyst for cultural change, advancing women economically and socially in ways few could have predicted.
The burping bowls that changed America
Forty years after the invention of plastic, Earl Tupper unveiled his airtight plastic containers. They must have looked like something out of science fiction. Vacuum-sealed with a “burping” lid, Tupperware reshaped the way food was stored. Suddenly, home cooks could keep…
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