Economics

463 readers

54 users here now

founded 2 years ago

Tupperware in fight to survive after bankruptcy filing (www.bbc.com)

submitted 3 months ago by MicroWave to c/economics

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

US brand Tupperware has filed for bankruptcy as it struggles to survive in the face of sliding sales.

The food storage container firm said it will ask for court permission to start a sale of the business and that it aimed to continue operating.

The 78-year-old firm has become so synonymous with food storage that many people use its name when referring to any old plastic container.

Despite attempts to freshen up its products in recent years and reposition itself to a younger audience, it has failed to stand out from competitors.

top 9 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I mean, the company made progressively crappier products, while still wanting to charge top tier prices because of their old reputation. I'm kinda amazed they lasted this long

[–] ThePowerOfGeek 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yup. Bought some of their containers about 10 years ago and they were okay quality. Bought some more of supposedly the same product a few years ago and the materials had totally changed and they were far inferior to the older ones.

Ended up replacing most of them with snapware ones (which have Pyrex containers). Very happy.

The whole thing with Tupperware is interesting. Weren't they basically using mostly an MLM approach to sell their products for years? Seems like their marketing and entire business model hasn't progressed since around the year 2000.

[–] Seleni 2 points 3 months ago

pyrex or PYREX? Because they changed for the worse too.

As far as MLMs go, I’d say it depends on the focus. If the focus is selling the product, then it isn’t an MLM any more than Lyft is. If the focus is on creating a downline and forcing them to aggressively purchase from the company, with sales as a tacked-on fig leaf, then yeah, definitely an MLM.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It’s all intentional. Tupperware, just like Red Lobster, Toys R Us, and every other high profile corporate bankruptcy where you just go “what were they thinking?”.

They were taken over by Boston Consulting Group, stripped for parts (any remaining $), stole the land, and rolled the debt into bankruptcy.

It’s so extreme it sounds like some shadowy cnspiracy but this is all public, verifiable information. All these companies either directly brought in BCG or their executive teams were BCG plants.

Welcome to the efficient market of capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

While this might have been revolutionary in the 50s, a food container isn’t really anything special nowadays.
TBH, I don't even know the brand of the glass ones I have at home. All I know is I don't have to worry about storing stuff that will etch into the plastic or deal with MLM reps bs.
Tupperware parties is a fancy name for MLM bullshit and I avoid MLMs like the plague.

[–] finestnothing 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Fun fact, Tupperware used to rely heavily on MLM schemes for free advertising. Remember your parents going to Tupperware parties when you were a kid? Check out the Tupperware Parties heading on wikipedia (not sure how to link to the heading itself) - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupperware

[–] Chee_Koala 2 points 3 months ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupperware#Tupperware_parties you link it like that, which it makes itself if you use the table of contents to hop there in the browser.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Plastic trash....

[–] Mango 3 points 3 months ago

Yaaaay! Fuck Tupperware!