The party’s over for Tupperware – but home parties were empowering for women

It was a multi-million dollar global marketing strategy that involved a selection of savoury nibbles, maybe a bottle or two of Blue Nun…and some neatly arranged lightweight plastic containers.

To outsiders – ie kids and husbands, who had no place in this curious enterprise – it was all a bit mysterious. We were never entirely sure what was going on behind the living-room door, when my mum and a gang of her friends and neighbours got together to talk Tupperware, but they seemed to be having fun.

Tupperware parties involved demonstrations and wacky games. The hostess then signed someone up to hold the next party, in their home. And so it went on. The first Tupperware party was held in 1948 and became a hit model for social selling. But now it seems the party’s over for Tupperware. The 78-year-old food container company has filed for bankruptcy in the US, after struggling against lower consumer spending.

Founded by American businessman Earl Tupper, who spotted the potential of flexible plastics and an airtight seal as a food waste solution, the brand soon took off. The revolutionary plastic boxes made their way into practically every household – even the Queen had them – all thanks to Tupperware parties.

The Tupperware Lady took a product that initially nobody knew how to use (the ‘burp’ process of closing then re-opening the lid to let out air is what kept food fresh) into ordinary homes and demonstrated it in a fun, informal setting. Pioneered by Brownie Wise, single mother, self-made businesswoman and marketing genius, the home party was a successful sales system, by women to women. It boosted female entrepreneurship in the 1950s, 60s and beyond.

The Tupperware party, much lampooned by Victoria Wood, wasn’t just housewives passing round plastic bowls and cheesy nibbles in someone’s living-room. It was an empowering business, run by a savvy network of women.

Tupperware became the go-to name for food containers, just as vacuum cleaners became ‘the Hoover’. But it was a victim of its own success. Tupperware lasted forever; the plastic boxes from those Seventies home parties were in my mum’s kitchen cupboards for the next 40 years. And of course cheaper versions were introduced by rival brands and supermarkets.

So the Tupperware party is over, but what of other home parties? Do people still have Avon parties? Or Pippa Dee? I handed out snacks at my mum’s Pippa Dee party and still remember the dress I got. Over the years I’ve been to make-up parties and Ann Summers parties (it can be a bit awks passing round the ‘accessories’ until the wine starts flowing and the racy quiz gets underway). A friend once hosted an expensive kitchenware party where, as always, I felt obliged to buy something and could only afford a set of wooden spoons.

The home party seems a bit naff now, but as a business strategy it was revolutionary and as a social/employment network it was empowering. And it was way more fun than online shopping.

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