Tupperware Says the Party Is Over in Britain

Reuters ^ | Thursday, January 23, 2003 | Matthew Jones

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

LONDON (Reuters) - The party's over for a generation of housewives after Tupperware said on Thursday its army of sales agents will be scrapped.

For around half a century, British women used to hold get-togethers in their front rooms, so-called Tupperware parties, to sell the plastic food containers.

But 21st century life has sounded the death knell for one of the country's most enduring -- and mocked -- traditions.

"We needed to update our business model," said Jane Garrard, vice president for investor relations at Orlando-based Tupperware.

About 1,500 sales demonstrators in Britain will have their contracts ended on March 30.

Terence Cosgrave, editor of Retail Intelligence said he believed the waning popularity of Tupperware parties was due to changes in eating habits.

"Tupperware was primarily used for storing food. Nowadays more people buy convenience foods and have less use for containers," he told Reuters.

He added that Tupperware, which was seen as a revolution in food hygiene and kitchen style when it was introduced, had faced increasing competition from other manufacturers.

In recent years Tupperware parties have also had to compete with the glamour of lingerie and wrinkle-smoothing Botox parties.

Tupperware said it may focus on selling through retailers.

MOURNED BY SOME

Although the Tupperware party, a sign of sophistication in the 1960s and 1970s, had become a butt of satirists in later years, the end is still likely to be missed by some.

Helen Fairweather, 64, said she attended Tupperware parties in the 1960s.

"You would get a group of friends together -- bit like an Ann Summers lingerie party -- and a person from Tupperware would come along to show their wares."

"You'd provide some nibbles and then, to lighten up the mood a bit, you used to have a little general knowledge quiz and the winner would get a piece of Tupperware," the London pensioner said.

But Fairweather said Tupperware was expensive and in time it discolored.

"You might as well buy the cheap ones and throw them away."

Geoff Jones, 72, a retired railway worker, from London, remembered his wife regularly hosted Tupperware parties.

"It used to be a social thing, something for the ladies to get together," he said, quickly adding he had never attended one himself.

Perhaps summing up the problem Tupperware faces was a comment from a member of the younger generation:

"Tupper-what party? Never heard of it. Sounds kinky," said 25-year-old office administrator Sally Wilkes from Croydon.

-- Additional reporting by Astrid Zweynert --

[Willie Green]

In recent years Tupperware parties have also had to compete with the glamour of lingerie and wrinkle-smoothing Botox parties.

Botox parties???

Smelly Armpits? Consider Botox Shots -German Study

[Larry Lucido]

About 1,500 sales demonstrators in Britain will have their contracts ended on March 30.

Hmm. So much for "Quit your job, recruit 6 people who each recruit 6 more people, then retire and live on the residuals and overrides."

[meowmeow]

"Tupper-what party? Never heard of it. Sounds kinky,"

A whole generation of women who will never know the glory of that little orange peeler and that shaking-mixing thing with the measurement markings on the side. *sigh*

[cyborg]

I didn't believe that rich people had so much time on their hands, until I saw it myself. A cable tv station covered a "botox and bagels" party in Beverly Hills. I thought..
" Why am I studying to be a nurse when I can be a plastic surgeon? "

[egarvue]

Well, here in the Frozen Midwest, Tupperware is still going strong. My wife sells the stuff, and people still attend the parties regularly. Just because its ending in Britain doesn't mean that its dead. Either way, these sensible Midwestern women would laugh their butts off at one of those freaky Botox babes...

[Boundless]

> A whole generation of women who will never
> know the glory of that little orange peeler
> and that shaking-mixing thing with the
> measurement markings on the side.

The gadgets are [still] cool, but Tupperware is ruining the underlying container product line.

My wife did TW decades ago, and recently gave it another look. In the meantime, TW switched from polyethylene to polypropylene for making the containers. Now PP has many advantages over PE as an engineering plastic, but...

You can't get the &#$!(* lids on most of the PP containers, and TW used to be famous for easy-to-use lids.

They're also using a more brittle plastic for the glossy translucent containers, and we're seeing a lot of them develop webs of cracks, and eventually fail, in normal use.

Suffice it to say she won't re-up for TW.

Old Coke wuz better :-)
No Coke is best :-)

[Inspectorette]

Target has started selling it retail. Wouldn't be surprised to see the end of Tupperware parties here, too.

[TexasRepublic]

We may mourn the passing of Tupperware parties, but there are other social traditions that we can maintain, such as wine tasting parties at home and gun try-out parties on the shooting line.

[discostu]

It's good to see the media in England is no smarter than here. Terrence is full of crap, Tuperware is dieing because there is now competition, most of whom have better products, and you can buy them conveniently at stores instead of waiting for some party.

[Boundless]

> Tupperware is dying [there] because there is now
> competition, most of whom have better products,
> and you can buy them conveniently at stores
> instead of waiting for some party.

For Tupperware, in large part the party IS the
product. As long as the TW products had arguably
superior price/performance, customers would allow
the social to take precedence over what would
otherwise be a more rational purchase.

But now that the product quality has, in the view
of my annoyed fingers, diminished, TW is asking
people to pay more for less, and forego the much
more rapid gratification of a store purchase. The
tribalism of the party can't cover the economic
and psychological gaps.

Not a strong position to have in the highly
competitive container/kitchen market.

Even the TW gadgets have lost their luster, as
any number of kitchen/tableware specialty outfits
offer similar/alternative gee-wizz widgets.

[discostu]

And Tupperware isn't the only source of selling-parties anymore, a friend of my wife's is really addicted to these things. Pampered Chef is my favorite because the use the products to make something out of one of their cookbooks (I've never outgrown my starving student love of free food) really kicks the crap out of Tupperware parties, and they're not the only ones my home was invaded for a crystal party once, and the invite list we get is constant and pretty varied. Thinking on that I wonder if there's some overhead for that sales model that's hurting it, one of the things I've noticed with Pampered Chef is that if you wait a year you'll find an equivalent product at Bed Bath and Beyond for about 25% less and if you wait another year you'll get an equivalent at Target for about half that. Anybody that's more expensive than BB&B (who's kitchen utensils are already grossly overpriced) should be looking to reduce costs.