It was always a good day when I would open my lunch and see a triangle Tupperware container I knew it had a piece of yesterdays homemade pie. But I also knew if I lost the Tupperware I was in trouble.
I had just contacted Tupperware a couple months ago. The lid on one of my bowls cracked. They have a lifetime guarantee. Unfortunately, the bowl was so old (we had it for decades) and out of date that they no longer had any lids for it. So they replaced the entire bowl with a new, slightly different bowl and lid. They sold other products besides bowls and some were quite innovative. I hope they survive.
It's interesting you were able to get their warranty. We contacted them several months ago about the warranty for several items that we know are out of date and they would not even respond to us except to tell us that the warranty process had been suspended. I haven't tried contacting them a long time and now that they're in bankruptcy I'm sure the warranty process is still suspended.
That is amazing that they honored the lifetime guarantee so close to the end. In this case"Lifetime"Guarantee is going to refer to the life of the company, not their products.
Craftsman had the same lifetime guarantee. One time my father found an old, beat up Craftsman screwdriver on the side of the road. He took it to Sears and they gave him a brand new one.
Oh, we are dating ourselves, Steve. My wife went to a Tupperware party a long time ago. We are still using that Tupperware in 2024. In my hometown we had a Fuller Brush man. He was always well- dressed and very congenial. I miss those days.
@@PromptCriticalJello Yes- I remember we had an Amway salesman in Northern Minnesota “at the lake” back in the late 1960’s. And, of course, the Mary Kay lady. My wife’s skin did not react well to those products. And, I haven’t seen any pink Cadillacs recently.
My uncle was a Fuller Brush man until he died a couple years ago. He no longer did the door to door, but he kept his old clients serviced to the end. He was 91.
I worked at a gas station in the ‘80s. The Fuller brush man (who was in his 80s at the time) would stop by every few months & see if we needed anything. His van was packed full of all kinds of brooms and brushes. My employer was a regular customer & almost always bought something from him. Their push brooms and whitewall brushes were super high quality & seemed to last forever. I left that job in ‘89. I was saddened to read of the Fuller brush man’s passing a few years later. Great guy, great products, and now a pleasant memory.
To answer your question. The 148 employees at their last remaining US plant in the small town of Hemingway, SC will surely miss Tupperware. This plant began being shutdown this month and will close its doors early next year. The company likely didn't go omni-channel because it would undermine the many people who had been faithfully selling their products for over 70 years. Likewise, they continued to be faithful to their American workers before recently transitioning manufacturing to Mexico. Unfortunately, they didn't have the management expertise to remain faithful to these values and still be successful. It may have been an impossible task, but I wish that could have pulled it off.
Honestly? No. They were undermining the people selling their products purely through the way they pseudo-employed 'em. The MLM business model is disgustingly predatory and only benefits corporate. They could've dropped their MLM line years ago when MLMs started getting called out en mass. They had plenty of time to stop using their distributors like cash cows. When recruitment started falling off, they could've salvaged what they had of their brand name and immediately switched to traditional and online retail without the scam aspect. And their distributors would've been *better off* if they had. So no, it wasn't because they wanted to avoid undermining their distributors- it's because they wanted to see how long they could keep riding off the backs of their distributors. Never, ever, support MLMs, network marketing, social selling, direct sales, or whatever other BS terms scammers keep inventing to distance themselves from every tainted name they used before. They're one step removed from straight up pyramid schemes.
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 I can't defend MLMs, but I suspect there would have been a lot of blowback and possibly lawsuits if they had abandoned their distributors.
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 Multi-level Marketing works for many people. It's not ideal, but neither is any other sales job. People who are able to succeed at MLM are often very happy to do it. I've had friends sell PartyLite, Pampered Chef, and Cutco. I have a friend that sells Mary Kay. She's been doing that for 15 years, and it saved her when she was widowed. She has something to do (her family is grown and gone), and a way to support herself. My father sold Cutco knives after college, so I grew up with Cutco as well as Tupperware. I also tried to sell Cutco after college, but I did not have a circle of friends that could afford those knives, so it didn't work for me. I accepted that, kept my sample set, and found work that is perfect for me.
Happy for people to have jobs, elsewhere, of course, but closing in-country manufacturing is such a loss. Sad for the people I have met who have been able to support themselves by the sales. I damaged my old bowl and thought about replacing one, and saw that they have portals for their sellers now, which was neat. They won’t onshore again, but their products are still really good.
I just realised - being an aging gent myself - that one of the marvels of the internet age, is that today old men can talk all day long about the olden days, and NOW thousands of people listen, instead of just saying “sure, grandpa” 😂
It is a marvel, but it does have a bit of a dark side, every time you hear sure grandpa, it may at that time be a reply just to acknowledge what you were saying, but years down the road, it will be a memory they cherish, while on the web, the overwhelming majority of your conversations will be forgotten within minutes and hours, so cherish those annoyed grandkids, and do your best to bore the crap out of them, they will miss it when it's gone
STEVE! Yes, Tupperware still exists! I now have to look for it in estate sales and antique stores, but yes, it’s still an important part of food preservation, at least in my kitchen. 😄
I'm 56. Tupperware is, and always has been, a significant part of my life and my family's life. My wife buys Tupperware regularly, just like my mother and grandmothers did. To hear someone refer to the brand as obscure is shocking. I sincerely hope Tupperware finds their way back into a succesful business model. I love Tupperware and am sad to find out they're struggling.
You are right about indestructible. I still have a few pieces of my mom's as well. The small mixing bowl has the year 1958 stamped on it, the year my oldest brother was born. You'd have to pay an arm & a leg for that kind of quality nowadays. Hope you have a good day ☘️
Merchant: [holding up a box] Ooh! Look at this! I have never seen one of these intact before. This is the famous Dead Sea Tupperware. Listen. [he lifts the lid of the box a little and blows a clandestine raspberry] Merchant: Ah, still good.
It's true. Tupperware tried to keep a lid on the story unfortunately they couldn't find one. On incidentally Woolworths is still in business. They closed the stores before having to declare bankruptcy. They own Footlocker. Same company.
How about using their hamburger press that flattened the ground beef into one of their containers which was then stacked on other containers making each container the lid for the container under it until you got to the top container which itself had a separate lid. They made very uniform hamburger patties and lasted a long time in the freezer.
I remember growing up on Toledo Street in the city of Detroit back in the last century. We had a jewel tea man with a truck. A Twin Pines milkman who would exchange bottles on your front porch porch. A fuller brush man who would come around twice a month and offer us all kinds of stuff that was handy to have around the house house. This episode of yours today makes me lament for my childhood.
Yep. Remember the metal carry cases, glass bottles of milk delivered twice a week. I remember the Fuller brush man, really good quality. My mother taught me how to clean and sanitize my brush in the bathroom lavatory with good old Parson's ammonia. Still have 2 very, very old Tupperware bowls AND original lids! 😉
I haven't thought of Twin Pines in forever. I think I remember when we would get ready for school (Homes Elementary) either a clown or a pirate who was on tv back then (channel 7?) who would do magic tricks and we all yelled out the magic words "TWIN PINES!". My mom would tell us to hush up.
I grew up with Tupperware; my family still uses their containers from back when I was a kid in the 60s. Simple, durable containers that just can't be beat, even today.
@@Bob-Lob-Lawyes, unmatched quality but they no longer honor their lifetime warranty. They do not last forever. We have quite a few pieces that are 25 to 35 years old and the warranty process has been halted. You can't get them replaced. I will never buy Tupperware again.
@@Tom-6502 thanks for that information. We haven't bought any Tupperware since probably the early 90s. So we didn't see the downgrade in plastic that you mentioned. It wasn't until the last couple of years that we've tried to get the warranty to be honored and haven't been able to do it.
If they just sold their products online, without multi-level marketing, where a website was always available to order new or replacement items... I'd buy it again. Kinda miss Tupperware...
@@liznohandle The problem is no one knows this. They failed to broker deals with big box stores like Walmart to get their product on shelves. They failed in so many ways that they brought it on themselves.
@@kameljoe21 When I was a kid, they were constantly advertising and letting people know that they existed. I still have one of those jingles from the 70s locked in my head. No doubt some VP decided that they could save some money by cutting their advertising budget.
@@kameljoe21 Originally, Tupperware was sold in stores AND FLOPPED BIG TIME. Things like lettuce crisper wasn't intuitive, so it failed to make true freshness. The burp needs a demonstration .
About 40 years ago, I was at my girlfriend's house when the vacuum sales man came to the door and did a 'demo' using a white piece of filter paper. He showed her mother the paper that not surprisingly had some dust on it. I still remember him holding up the paper, not saying a word and giving her that dramatic look. I'm sure that he must have spent hours in front of the mirror every night perfecting it. It worked and she bought one. It died after a year.
Lol no joke one vacuum salesman said, in reference to another 'high end' vacuum's exhaust filter...which used water. He said "did you ever fart in the bathtub?" 🤔 "Well, do you smell it?" 😂🤣
My mother used an order from home company called American. The guy had regular customers. When he came to the house and we were home and answered the door,we'd yell" mom, John the American man is here" . They sold household items.If you ordered something he would bring it with him the next time. I remember when the founder of Tupperware died. Johnny Carson talked about it in his monologue and said something about being buried in a Tupperware casket that the burped to keep him fresh
My parents bought a vacuum from a guy that was going door to door when I was young. This was as recently as 2007 or so, the “old fashioned” way of selling things was still alive and well until fairly recently.
My grandfather sold fuller brush nearly his entire life. He was a very good salesman. Many people remember him very well. My father sold under him when he was a kid. They always sold good products. I still have fuller brush products from him myself. I also have Tupperware products. It's almost nostalgic to hear you talk about it. 😊
Tupperware, Fuller Brush, Cutco Knives, Kirby Vacuums, Avon/Mary Kay, most of them are still around in some form. Every single one of them resisted dropping the rep sales model and suffered for it. I have Tupperware older than some of the viewers here, they still make some of the best plasticware. Every so often over the years I'd check to see if they got with the times and ditched the rep model, when they finally sold on Target I went NUTS and fully stocked my house. They used to have a lifetime warranty which was handy if you lost a lid you could contact them. Don't know if that's still true. Either way, I have an army of old and new Tupperware and I'll fight anyone who tries to steal it.
Amway is still around, too. I sent my mom's Amway VHS training tapes to a UA-cam a while back because she covers MLM schemes all the time. That negative attention and coverage is doing a number on MLMs. iirc, one company has recently-ish decided to nix their MLM model and switch it out for just an affiliate program that doesn't have downlines or benefits for recruiting. One down, a metric ton more to go. We gotta keep spreading the word about how these businesses are just one step removed from pyramid schemes. Somethin' around 97% of all MLM distributors make no money for their work.
Cutco! A young woman, on summer break from college came to my house decades ago. I was in the midst of a losing battle trying to thin slice a ham. She came on the right day, but I probably startled her since I practically yanked her into the house and took her to the kitchen to show me her samples. I bought a full set and we still use them every day. You can send them back and they will resharpen them at no charge.
The CEO said several years ago that they were pulling out of the US market because Americans dont appreciate reusable durable storage containers. They preferred disposable containers and basically called Americans stupid, lazy, and unappreciative of what Tupperware provided. I agree with him on that. I have the Tupperware Velveeta box from the 1970-1980s. Still works great and I will pass it on to my child if he ever discovers how great Velveeta is.
The first Craftsman ratchet I bought that wasn't made in America lasted under a year. Sears replaced it, and the same thing happened. Then Sears started closing. Won't buy again.
Sears was the first name that came to mind when Steve mentioned not adapting to the changing times of sales. And yes, my older Craftsman tools are much better than the ones they started importing. I think I went through three Craftsman cordless drills before getting a DeWalt which still works and has gotten a good 5X the use of those three Craftsman ones combined, probably more.
@@HariSeldon913The issue with Sears wasn't a failure to adapt. The issue was Lampert as CEO having them sell the properties to him and then renting it back to the stores.
We used to have these Tupperware totes that could keep like, I don't know, 20, 25 gallons worth of stuff in them. They were fairly large, and they lasted more than 20 years. And as a child, I abused the crap out of them because they were big enough to get inside of and play in. Tupperware makes incredible products, especially compared to the cheaper modern Chinese bull crap.
My mom bought a little brush for sweeping up stuff into a dust pan from a Fuller Brush guy. I was six ish when she bought it. It’s still in my house today doing its job very well. I miss quality items.
My dad was a Fuller Brush man briefly. We had moved back to his home town in a small mining and lumber region. He anticipated getting a job in one of the mines but they weren't hiring just then. Desperate for any job he signed up to sell brushes. He went door-to-door diligently about 4 weeks a month. Then his regional manager would show up and the two of them would sell to the occupants of the 4 or 5 semi-legal brothels in the area (they were owned by a partnership of the mayor, sheriff, chief of police, and other officials.) He made 95% of his income that day. After 3 months he started back at the mine.
I guess the other memory is for us Gen X’ers - How sacred was the Tupperware? I had a lunch box and inventory was done daily for its components. If I forgot something or lost something I might as well lost an expensive gem stone the way my mom reacted. LOL!!
I think Tupperware ran into the same issue that a lot of companies do. China is subsidizing competitors so they can sell their products a lot cheaper. Now they can raise those prices to maximize profits now that they put tupperware out of business.
tupperware can now be bought online. I have a 20 pack of their citrus peelers, and I have used their salt and pepper shakers all my adult life. I grew up drinking out of their glasses. the real issue is that they now have a lot of competition in the plastic container market.
I like to use the much cheaper containers made by their competitors. That way when I leave a container of leftovers in the fridge lone enough for stranger-things to be growing on the food, I can afford to simply trash it container and all.
I remember the end of Tupperware in our house was when their product was not microwavable. Sadly, I got this $#!t as part of my inheritance, being the kid that lived nearest to them when they passed on. The best of their Tupperware, Corningware, Pyrex, now move with me or fill some Goodwill shelves.
That was about the only bad thing about Tupperware, and I think that most of us discovered it accidentally. And hopefully not with loaned Tupperware from someone else's kitchen!
We grew up drinking sweet tea and Kool-Aid out of pastel colored, plastic Tupperware tumblers. My brother recently bought a new set so we could use them at his house. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
When I told my wife about Tupperware going bankrupt she said it was because it lasted so long. After she bought it some years ago she never had to repurchase it. The price of making a product that does not have planned obsolescence.
But with population growth there are always new customers. Robust international marketing becomes priority then, I would think. Keep the good word-of-mouth going too...
My father in law made the first molds for Mr Tupper when they started in Massachusetts. In fact my wife still has the very first Tupper tumbler to ever get made. I have to edit this, Steve mentioned Fuller Brush. My dad, my wife, and I were all in Fuller Brush sales. Alfred Fuller came to a sales meeting at my house in 1960 in South Portland Maine. When we visited Nova Scotia a few years ago we visited the Alfred Fuller vacation home. My wife and I "schooled" the tour guide about a lot of things.
As a current employ of Tupperware and continuous work and fun I’ve had I can say that we are still going strong and would love for others to join us and we aren’t closing our doors just fixing our big issues!
I remember back in the late 50's, early 60's sitting in the car reading and playing with my toy cars while mom sold Tupperware inside another women's home. I was bored and very relieved when it was over and we could finally go home. Another memory is Dad would occasionally take me with him on his route working for a meat packing plant in southeastern Ohio to make small deliveries and take orders from little grocery stores in the tiny towns in the area. The main difference was that my dad would buy me snacks and comic books to keep me from get bored. Looking back, these are very precious memories.
I am 74 years old. My favorite broom, that I still use every day, is a Fuller Brush broom. I remember my Mom buying it from the Fuller Brush man before I went to kindergarten. It is still wonderful. Literally...they don't make 'em like that anymore!
I remember my mom selling (at one time or another) Avon, Mary Kay, Amway, Tupperware, Home Interior, Stanley Home Products and probably some others I forgot.
We still have Tupperware pieces from 40 years ago that still work perfectly. Though the other day I had a small piece of a shaker mixer bottle break, but it didn’t effect its function, so I can still use it. my mother sold Tupperware for a few years when was little and remember people coming to the house for parties and we had a ton of the stuff. It’s such an iconic brand that in some areas any similar product is labelled “Tupperware” by people, much the same way that a lot of people call all facial tissues Kleenex.
My Grandmother used to have regular visits from the Fuller Brush Man, The Jewel Tea Man, The Charles Chips Man and the Avon Lady. With the occasional Tupperware party thrown in here and there. I remember those Charles Chips as being the best when I was a little kid 🥰
People seem to forget that Tupperware gave many house wives and young women away to make a little extra cash without having to have a full time job. Other then a cook at the bar this was my mom's first job, and she worked hard from there and in 1994 she was named Woman Of The Year by the A.B.W.A for her accomplishments.
I inherited a Kirby that my parents bought in 1956. It lasted until about 2005. I could have gotten it fixed and it would probably still be good today, but stupid me wanted something new. Since 2005, I've probably gone through 6 or 7 vacuum cleaners, each costing $250-400. On the other hand, I've a friend that despite living in absolute poverty, got suckered into buying a $2400 Kirby from a door-to-door salesman. He still has it and never fails to brag about how great it is, although I'm fairly certain he never paid it off.
When I was a young adult creating my own household, I distinctly remember not wanting to pay Tupperware prices for a salad spinner. Bought a few cheap ones that always eventually died because they had metal bits that rusted. Finally bit the bullet and bought a Tupperware one from a kiosk at the mall. It’s still going strong, being entirely made of plastic, but I still dislike the color. More recently I have bought some hard to source pieces on eBay from a vendor in Poland. They’re just fine too, but I still don’t understand why those products weren’t made available to potential customers in the US more directly. Handy kitchen tools, each and every one, but for non-microwaveable food storage I depend on a brand that’s easy to open and easy to find.
When you said "the Fuller Brush guy" a memory from 1960 or 61 in my 6th or 7th year jump out of the recesses of my mind. Our Fuller Brush guy sold Watkins branded stuff also. Mom needed Vanilla and I followed him back to his station wagon to get the bottle. I marvelled at the load he carried, he had so many boxes in there. We had our own station wagon and full with Mom, Dad and five kids going to the beach it was not as full as his car.
Unfortunately, one of the reasons they are going out of business is because they have always had their products made here in the US. Due to US trade policies it's really hard for any manufacturing venture to compete by providing US made products.
Yes, tarrifs. But, people complain that tarrifs on foreign good will raise prices and hurt poor people. Tarrifs raise foreign goods up to US made products making homemade competitive.
Okay it's not trade policies, it's pro-Wall Street and anti-labor (Citizens) policies because SCOTUS over the decades has erased the protections (Laws) that protected American workers and consumers from out-of-control Greed. First Companies made more money by suppressing wages nationwide (Minimum Wage) and breaking protections for unions in the courts. Wages remaining flat but that doesn't provide year over year increases in dividends to shareholders so they might move manufacturing to a state that doesn't have a high minimum wage or overseas or to Mexico. American consumers have less and less money and less and less power. The rich have a lot of power. It's been a slow-roll towards turning America into a third-world shit hole to benefit the rich. I have to resort to getting Tupperware at garage sales cheap because they don't know what they have.
Hell, I still burp the Tupperware! My kids laughed when I told thek what I was doing, now they do it! Back in 07 I bought a Craftsman socket set, one of the big ones, when Craftsman was still made in the US. Its complete and I've told my kids that it's a family heirloom!
My mother has or had a Kirby vacuum cleaner, best vacuum cleaner around. Easily lasted 20 years plus, built to last. I remember Tupperware too, I have a microwaveable container that I used frequently. There also was a company that had home parties for home decorations like wall candle holders. I remember a MASH episode where Klinger was dressed up as a door to door salesmen selling suits and I think BJ bought one with stripes, but when he received the suit the stripes were horizontal instead of vertical, funny episode. There was an episode of Married With Chilren where Peggy went to one of those parties, then started selling the items to herself, too funny. I think it was cosmetics.
This makes no sense to me. I’m a junk dealer and vintage Tupperware is one of my best sellers. I buy every piece I can find from the 60’s and 70’s and it sells fast and for the same prices it sold for new often times for more than it originally sold for. If they are going bankrupt it’s fully from mismanagement because with the right strategy they could be I just as successful as ever.
I grew up in Kissimmee, Florida where the world headquarters was located. I remember seeing the Florida Symphony Orchestra, when I was in middle school, playing in the auditorium at their corporate campus. Many years later they sold (donated?) that half of the property to the school system which turned it into a magnet school center for the arts. My wife loves Tupperware. I bought her some for Christmas a couple of years ago to help her replace the ones lost or stolen.
My dad told me about the "Umbrella Man" that used to make the rounds through the neighborhood when he was growing up. Sounds like the Umbrella Man had a business model similar to the Fuller Brush man, except, as I understood it, the Umbrella Man carried some inventory with him in a cart. As it is, I'm just old enough to remember the Milk Man making his rounds. Edit: My wife just reminded me about door-to-door Encyclopedia Men; I had forgotten. My parents bought a set from one such salesman when my brother and I were in school; that set is still on a bookshelf in my mom's house (dad passed away almost 20 years ago). How times have changed!
We had an "Umbrella man" in downtown Greenville SC for ages, but what he did was repair umbrellas in his shop. Everybody knew who he was and he did very good work. He passed away at a very old age in the 90's IIRC, still working daily.
"Speak of the devil", There's a guy who turns up every weekend at the local flea markets who does just this, even the pedal power(because there are no power points in the supermarket car park)
Everybody had the Tupperware measuring cups, sugar, flour containers.,,, and the bowls. I can always remember the different colors and the type of lids they use.
This is heartbreaking! The lid to my 1 gallon pitcher just cracked yesterday. I looked online to see about getting a replacement. The nearest consultant (sales person) is 35 miles away in a town I never heard of. I live in a Midwest city with a population of over 270,000 people and no one sells Tupperware. I grew up with Tupperware. We had a pitcher like mine in the fridge most of my life. We had the cake carrier, the pie carrier (I own one), bowls, all kinds of things. The only thing I wanted from my grandmother's estate when she passed was my cup. All 14 grandchildren had a Tupperware cup with their name written in permanent ink on it. At Grandma's funeral I asked a couple of cousins and they agreed: we wanted our cups to remember family get-togethers. No one knows what happened to the cups, though. I guess I need to act quickly to get that replacement lid.
I remember the Fuller brush man. He drove a VW Vanagon and was always dressed with a jacket and tie and carried three or four suitcases as he walked around our neighborhood. His name was Steve!
I can remember my mother hosting a Tupperware party when I was s kid. And in the 70's my wife went to several Tupperware parties and bought in addition to items for the kitchen the ball that a child would learn their shapes by inserting them into the appropriate shaped opening in the ball.
In the mid 1980s, we had one of the many sided Tupperware, about the size of a soccer ball, toys with the different sizes of parts to help teach kids different shapes replaced when my 3 year old son plopped his backside on it and cracked it. I contacted a Tupperware salesperson to buy a replacement and was informed it would be free as Tupperware has a lifetime warranty. We were young parents at the time and very impressed with the service.
Interesting fact. I have in-laws in the Philippines and found out that if you own Tupperware you have made it in life.Tupperware is even pawnable if you need cash in an emergency.
When my Dad worked at Tupperware in the 80s, the Philippines had a series of typhoons and earthquakes and all communications were brought down. They ended up re-establishing contact using a ham radio guy (Steve, can we include ham radio in this too?) and asked if Tupperware Philippines needed anything. The Morse code reply was, "Send more sales brochures." My Dad loved the Philippines after that.
There was a shoe company that sold door to door, I can’t remember the name. They were around when I began working in the mid nineteen-seventies, in manufacturing. You would pick out a shoe style, or work boot, the salesman would take your size and pertinent information. The following week he would return with your shoes for you to try on, if it worked for you, you paid him and off he went. Don’t know if they went into residential neighborhoods or only commercial/industrial areas.
I was friends with their top sales person who actually played a character called “Aunt Barbara” ….. she would dress up in total sixties regalia and played like an Italian decent newyork accent housewife….. she did extremely well in sales for them basically doing a comedy show at people’s houses then taking orders for Tupperware….. Tupperware even gave her a car as a sales award…. There is a lot of “Aunt Barbara” stuff on UA-cam if you want to see it
Interesting. I remember my ex calling every type of plastic food container "Tupperware" regardless of brand which confused me, especially since it was always so expensive as compared to Ziploc containers or whatnot.
Once they got people used to the idea of reusable containers to store leftovers and carry sandwiches, other (offshore) companies began selling reusable plastic boxes cheaper in stores. Tupperware attempted to move to a store (and, later, e-commerce) sales business model, but apparently couldn't compete on price. RIP
The movie “Airplane” …. Where the young couple joins the Peace Corps, goes to Africa, him to teach basketball and her to sell Tupperware. Can’t remember the last time I heard of a Tupperware party. Tupperware did join E-commerce market, but it didn’t really thrive. Withered, it seems. Their. Ad copy just failed to connect with me, even when I was actively trying to buy their stuff.
My parents have had a set of Tupperware cups since I was old enough to remember. All the other plastic cups they’d get from different events(they never paid for a set of cups other than the Tupperware😂) would last a couple years then get thrown out, but the Tupperware withstood 20+ years of abuse from me and my siblings and are still going strong.
I'd forgotten all about the Fuller Brush Man. One showed up at our house once, in the mid to late 1960s as I recall. He put on quite a performance on our front porch; set up quite a little storefront by our front door before he rang the bell. I remember several iterations of "[fast talk] and it REALLY works!" As it turned out, my sister ordered a hairbrush, which the man delivered a few weeks later. But we never saw him or any of his brethren ever again. I guess our street wasn't too profitable.
I remember in business class that to be nimble and fast to get into any open markets is the best way to survive. Tupperware was to slow thinking it was a closed ecosystem.
The company that had that business model that I really remember was Avon. Where Fuller Brush sales was done by men, Avon was done by women. Everyone knew someone who's mom or sister tried being an "Avon Lady"
My Father sold Fuller Brush and Watkins products, and was a door to door insurance sales man also. And was quite successful. He now sells antiques and other products online. He and my mother were some of the first people selling on eBay.
My home town still has a Fuller brush factory operating in it. Never knew they had people selling their stuff door to door. We always just went and got cleaning supplies from the outlet store at the plant.
I must by old. I hosted a Tupperware party. I still use Tupperware products. This company replaces products that have broken in daily use. I have returned several lids that have cracked and had them replaced. My replacements were several years ago. Cannot say that for any other company.
I'm 75 years old and certainly remember Tupperware parties and the Fuller Brush man, not to mention milk boxes on every doorstep and dodging the milk delivery trucks when out early delivering papers. Times have certainly changed.
This 80 year old never cared for tupperware because it melted. And didn't care for leftovers. Always tried to cook what was need for the meal. Believe it was a generational thing from my parents who saw too much food poisioning back in the "old days."
Door-to-door sales worked in those older years because most women stayed at home. In today's world, most women work so there's no one at home to answer the door. I remember Tupperware parties (my mother ran a few of them), Fuller Brush man, and a vacuum cleaner salesman that frequented the neighborhood. Tupperware may also be guilty of its own successes and quality products. I still have a few Tupperware containers that my mother bought 50 years ago.
It was always a good day when I would open my lunch and see a triangle Tupperware container I knew it had a piece of yesterdays homemade pie. But I also knew if I lost the Tupperware I was in trouble.
I've got in trouble more than once for failure to return someone's Tupperware 😂
I had just contacted Tupperware a couple months ago. The lid on one of my bowls cracked. They have a lifetime guarantee.
Unfortunately, the bowl was so old (we had it for decades) and out of date that they no longer had any lids for it. So they replaced the entire bowl with a new, slightly different bowl and lid.
They sold other products besides bowls and some were quite innovative. I hope they survive.
It's interesting you were able to get their warranty. We contacted them several months ago about the warranty for several items that we know are out of date and they would not even respond to us except to tell us that the warranty process had been suspended. I haven't tried contacting them a long time and now that they're in bankruptcy I'm sure the warranty process is still suspended.
That is amazing that they honored the lifetime guarantee so close to the end. In this case"Lifetime"Guarantee is going to refer to the life of the company, not their products.
I saw several new bowels at TJMaxx recently.
@@TT-kg3li what can brown do for you?
Craftsman had the same lifetime guarantee. One time my father found an old, beat up Craftsman screwdriver on the side of the road. He took it to Sears and they gave him a brand new one.
Oh, we are dating ourselves, Steve. My wife went to a Tupperware party a long time ago. We are still using that Tupperware in 2024.
In my hometown we had a Fuller Brush man. He was always well- dressed and very congenial. I miss those days.
My mother used to sell Avon and Amway. She gave up the Amway when she was promoted to district manager for Avon.
@@PromptCriticalJello Yes- I remember we had an Amway salesman in Northern Minnesota “at the lake” back in the late 1960’s. And, of course, the Mary Kay lady. My wife’s skin did not react well to those products. And, I haven’t seen any pink Cadillacs recently.
My late grandmother sold Tupperware. Gotta say, their products speak for themselves. We still use some of her old Tupperware containers.
Their biggest failing is not realizing how antisocial society has become.
My wife has said her tupperware will outlast her, which is a fact supported by the fact we are still using my mother's Tupperware from the 70's.
Does it have that old plastic smell to it?
The cover holder is still there in my mom's kitchen.
My uncle was a Fuller Brush man until he died a couple years ago.
He no longer did the door to door, but he kept his old clients serviced to the end.
He was 91.
This restores my faith in humanity. ❤
That's the kind of service you don't get anymore.
I worked at a gas station in the ‘80s. The Fuller brush man (who was in his 80s at the time) would stop by every few months & see if we needed anything. His van was packed full of all kinds of brooms and brushes. My employer was a regular customer & almost always bought something from him. Their push brooms and whitewall brushes were super high quality & seemed to last forever.
I left that job in ‘89. I was saddened to read of the Fuller brush man’s passing a few years later. Great guy, great products, and now a pleasant memory.
I'd buy something from a good man like that.
@@alantrimble2881
Correct 💯%
Mom Had a Bath Brush Over 50 Years Old.
To answer your question. The 148 employees at their last remaining US plant in the small town of Hemingway, SC will surely miss Tupperware. This plant began being shutdown this month and will close its doors early next year. The company likely didn't go omni-channel because it would undermine the many people who had been faithfully selling their products for over 70 years. Likewise, they continued to be faithful to their American workers before recently transitioning manufacturing to Mexico. Unfortunately, they didn't have the management expertise to remain faithful to these values and still be successful. It may have been an impossible task, but I wish that could have pulled it off.
I'm in the upstate and I had no idea their factory was here. So sad in so many ways.
Honestly? No. They were undermining the people selling their products purely through the way they pseudo-employed 'em. The MLM business model is disgustingly predatory and only benefits corporate. They could've dropped their MLM line years ago when MLMs started getting called out en mass. They had plenty of time to stop using their distributors like cash cows. When recruitment started falling off, they could've salvaged what they had of their brand name and immediately switched to traditional and online retail without the scam aspect. And their distributors would've been *better off* if they had. So no, it wasn't because they wanted to avoid undermining their distributors- it's because they wanted to see how long they could keep riding off the backs of their distributors. Never, ever, support MLMs, network marketing, social selling, direct sales, or whatever other BS terms scammers keep inventing to distance themselves from every tainted name they used before. They're one step removed from straight up pyramid schemes.
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 I can't defend MLMs, but I suspect there would have been a lot of blowback and possibly lawsuits if they had abandoned their distributors.
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 Multi-level Marketing works for many people. It's not ideal, but neither is any other sales job. People who are able to succeed at MLM are often very happy to do it. I've had friends sell PartyLite, Pampered Chef, and Cutco. I have a friend that sells Mary Kay. She's been doing that for 15 years, and it saved her when she was widowed. She has something to do (her family is grown and gone), and a way to support herself.
My father sold Cutco knives after college, so I grew up with Cutco as well as Tupperware. I also tried to sell Cutco after college, but I did not have a circle of friends that could afford those knives, so it didn't work for me. I accepted that, kept my sample set, and found work that is perfect for me.
Happy for people to have jobs, elsewhere, of course, but closing in-country manufacturing is such a loss.
Sad for the people I have met who have been able to support themselves by the sales. I damaged my old bowl and thought about replacing one, and saw that they have portals for their sellers now, which was neat.
They won’t onshore again, but their products are still really good.
I just realised - being an aging gent myself - that one of the marvels of the internet age, is that today old men can talk all day long about the olden days, and NOW thousands of people listen, instead of just saying “sure, grandpa” 😂
😂😅😂
That's cute ❤
It is a marvel, but it does have a bit of a dark side, every time you hear sure grandpa, it may at that time be a reply just to acknowledge what you were saying, but years down the road, it will be a memory they cherish, while on the web, the overwhelming majority of your conversations will be forgotten within minutes and hours, so cherish those annoyed grandkids, and do your best to bore the crap out of them, they will miss it when it's gone
Yes I often reminisce about candy bar prices when I purchase a candy bar nowadays.
STEVE! Yes, Tupperware still exists! I now have to look for it in estate sales and antique stores, but yes, it’s still an important part of food preservation, at least in my kitchen. 😄
Amen sis, other brands can't compare, especially with the older stuff. Estate sales = tupperware, pyrex, and corningware.
I know a lady....still selling her wares.
My mother still sells Tupperware. We being hearing the same "Tupperware is still around?!" Since 15 years ago.
I'm 56. Tupperware is, and always has been, a significant part of my life and my family's life. My wife buys Tupperware regularly, just like my mother and grandmothers did. To hear someone refer to the brand as obscure is shocking.
I sincerely hope Tupperware finds their way back into a succesful business model. I love Tupperware and am sad to find out they're struggling.
I'm 66 and I still have my mother's tupperware as well as the pieces I bought over the years. The stuff is nearly indestru.
You are right about indestructible. I still have a few pieces of my mom's as well. The small mixing bowl has the year 1958 stamped on it, the year my oldest brother was born. You'd have to pay an arm & a leg for that kind of quality nowadays. Hope you have a good day ☘️
Does anyone else have a cupboard full of Tupperware containers and lids, none of which match???
Hahahaha! Right! Constantly scouting the Goodwill and thrifts to find the right match.
Mine all match.
😂😅😂
✋✋✋✋✋
@@billheinowski1807 Mine are all mismatched with Gladware and Rubbermaid.
“These seal tight containers keep hotdog buns fresh for days…”
Elane, Airplane 1980
Merchant: [holding up a box] Ooh! Look at this! I have never seen one of these intact before. This is the famous Dead Sea Tupperware. Listen.
[he lifts the lid of the box a little and blows a clandestine raspberry]
Merchant: Ah, still good.
It's true. Tupperware tried to keep a lid on the story unfortunately they couldn't find one.
On incidentally Woolworths is still in business. They closed the stores before having to declare bankruptcy. They own Footlocker. Same company.
🏆🤣
I see what you did there.
Tupperware neglected to 'burp' the lid on the story 🙂
You just won the internet.
Stealing that joke. 😂
The old school Tupperware I have are easily the best plastic containers I own.
ICAM. Very high quality.
Who remembers making koolaid popsicles with tupperware molds??
How about using their hamburger press that flattened the ground beef into one of their containers which was then stacked on other containers making each container the lid for the container under it until you got to the top container which itself had a separate lid. They made very uniform hamburger patties and lasted a long time in the freezer.
Oh yes! KoolAid popsicles!
Well, thanks to you, I DO remember it now ... but I haven't thought about that particular item in at least 3 decades!
Haha… we made a million koolaid popsicles in one of those! Haven’t thought about that in forever. Thanks for the reminder.
They still sell them but mostly during the summer months.
I remember growing up on Toledo Street in the city of Detroit back in the last century.
We had a jewel tea man with a truck.
A Twin Pines milkman who would exchange bottles on your front porch porch.
A fuller brush man who would come around twice a month and offer us all kinds of stuff that was handy to have around the house house.
This episode of yours today makes me lament for my childhood.
Yep. Remember the metal carry cases, glass bottles of milk delivered twice a week. I remember the Fuller brush man, really good quality. My mother taught me how to clean and sanitize my brush in the bathroom lavatory with good old Parson's ammonia. Still have 2 very, very old Tupperware bowls AND original lids! 😉
I haven't thought of Twin Pines in forever. I think I remember when we would get ready for school (Homes Elementary) either a clown or a pirate who was on tv back then (channel 7?) who would do magic tricks and we all yelled out the magic words "TWIN PINES!". My mom would tell us to hush up.
I know. I want to go back.
I grew up with Tupperware; my family still uses their containers from back when I was a kid in the 60s. Simple, durable containers that just can't be beat, even today.
Unmatched quality
@@Bob-Lob-Lawyes, unmatched quality but they no longer honor their lifetime warranty. They do not last forever. We have quite a few pieces that are 25 to 35 years old and the warranty process has been halted. You can't get them replaced. I will never buy Tupperware again.
Be careful, you're using your old tupperware. It has bpa's s in it
@@Tom-6502 thanks for that information. We haven't bought any Tupperware since probably the early 90s. So we didn't see the downgrade in plastic that you mentioned. It wasn't until the last couple of years that we've tried to get the warranty to be honored and haven't been able to do it.
@@Tom-6502 Someone above said that the plant in SC is still operating until next year at least.
My mom attended and hosted a lot of Tupperware parties in the 1960s and 1970s. I still have some of her containers. They’re nearly bulletproof.
I remember my mom getting Tupperware at the Greenstamps store. Good times.
sperry & hutchinson
If they just sold their products online, without multi-level marketing, where a website was always available to order new or replacement items... I'd buy it again. Kinda miss Tupperware...
MLM really was the Internet before the Internet
There is a website, company run, no agent needed. Used it a few months ago to get new lids.
@@liznohandle The problem is no one knows this. They failed to broker deals with big box stores like Walmart to get their product on shelves. They failed in so many ways that they brought it on themselves.
@@kameljoe21 When I was a kid, they were constantly advertising and letting people know that they existed. I still have one of those jingles from the 70s locked in my head. No doubt some VP decided that they could save some money by cutting their advertising budget.
@@kameljoe21
Originally, Tupperware was sold in stores AND FLOPPED BIG TIME.
Things like lettuce crisper wasn't intuitive, so it failed to make true freshness. The burp needs a demonstration .
I remember encyclopedia and vacuum cleaner salesman coming to our house.
Encyclopedias were the Wikipedia of the day!
About 40 years ago, I was at my girlfriend's house when the vacuum sales man came to the door and did a 'demo' using a white piece of filter paper. He showed her mother the paper that not surprisingly had some dust on it. I still remember him holding up the paper, not saying a word and giving her that dramatic look. I'm sure that he must have spent hours in front of the mirror every night perfecting it. It worked and she bought one. It died after a year.
I remember Tupperware parties.
Lol no joke one vacuum salesman said, in reference to another 'high end' vacuum's exhaust filter...which used water.
He said
"did you ever fart in the bathtub?"
🤔
"Well, do you smell it?"
😂🤣
I remember the Kirby salesman. But their vacuum cleaners sucked.
My mother used an order from home company called American. The guy had regular customers. When he came to the house and we were home and answered the door,we'd yell" mom, John the American man is here" . They sold household items.If you ordered something he would bring it with him the next time. I remember when the founder of Tupperware died. Johnny Carson talked about it in his monologue and said something about being buried in a Tupperware casket that the burped to keep him fresh
I just bought a set of Tupperware a few months ago. It's still the best food storage on the market, sad to see them file for bankruptcy.
Vacuum cleaners were sold the same way. Of course milk and ice were also delivered to houses regularly.
Milk, eggs, bread, all delivered to the home.
Ice Cream?
And bread and eggs!
My parents bought a vacuum from a guy that was going door to door when I was young. This was as recently as 2007 or so, the “old fashioned” way of selling things was still alive and well until fairly recently.
My grandfather sold fuller brush nearly his entire life. He was a very good salesman. Many people remember him very well. My father sold under him when he was a kid. They always sold good products. I still have fuller brush products from him myself. I also have Tupperware products. It's almost nostalgic to hear you talk about it. 😊
my late father in law worked at the Fuller brush factory in Connecticut and made the brushes ...we always used Fuller Brushes...........😇😇😍
Tupperware, Fuller Brush, Cutco Knives, Kirby Vacuums, Avon/Mary Kay, most of them are still around in some form. Every single one of them resisted dropping the rep sales model and suffered for it.
I have Tupperware older than some of the viewers here, they still make some of the best plasticware. Every so often over the years I'd check to see if they got with the times and ditched the rep model, when they finally sold on Target I went NUTS and fully stocked my house. They used to have a lifetime warranty which was handy if you lost a lid you could contact them. Don't know if that's still true. Either way, I have an army of old and new Tupperware and I'll fight anyone who tries to steal it.
Amway is still around, too. I sent my mom's Amway VHS training tapes to a UA-cam a while back because she covers MLM schemes all the time. That negative attention and coverage is doing a number on MLMs. iirc, one company has recently-ish decided to nix their MLM model and switch it out for just an affiliate program that doesn't have downlines or benefits for recruiting. One down, a metric ton more to go. We gotta keep spreading the word about how these businesses are just one step removed from pyramid schemes. Somethin' around 97% of all MLM distributors make no money for their work.
Cutco! A young woman, on summer break from college came to my house decades ago. I was in the midst of a losing battle trying to thin slice a ham. She came on the right day, but I probably startled her since I practically yanked her into the house and took her to the kitchen to show me her samples. I bought a full set and we still use them every day. You can send them back and they will resharpen them at no charge.
I remember Red Skelton portraying the Fuller Brush Man. Hilarious!!
Whoa, you're really telling our age now. I remember too.
Red Skelton’s show can still be seen on RFD-TV
"good night and God Bless"
I’m so old I used to sell Fuller Brush products door to door. We had territories.
A very respectful profession. There are lots of admiring comments here for the Fuller Brush salesmen, hope you get the chance to read them.
The CEO said several years ago that they were pulling out of the US market because Americans dont appreciate reusable durable storage containers. They preferred disposable containers and basically called Americans stupid, lazy, and unappreciative of what Tupperware provided. I agree with him on that. I have the Tupperware Velveeta box from the 1970-1980s. Still works great and I will pass it on to my child if he ever discovers how great Velveeta is.
The first Craftsman ratchet I bought that wasn't made in America lasted under a year. Sears replaced it, and the same thing happened. Then Sears started closing. Won't buy again.
Sears was the first name that came to mind when Steve mentioned not adapting to the changing times of sales. And yes, my older Craftsman tools are much better than the ones they started importing. I think I went through three Craftsman cordless drills before getting a DeWalt which still works and has gotten a good 5X the use of those three Craftsman ones combined, probably more.
@@HariSeldon913The issue with Sears wasn't a failure to adapt. The issue was Lampert as CEO having them sell the properties to him and then renting it back to the stores.
We used to have these Tupperware totes that could keep like, I don't know, 20, 25 gallons worth of stuff in them. They were fairly large, and they lasted more than 20 years. And as a child, I abused the crap out of them because they were big enough to get inside of and play in. Tupperware makes incredible products, especially compared to the cheaper modern Chinese bull crap.
My mom bought a little brush for sweeping up stuff into a dust pan from a Fuller Brush guy. I was six ish when she bought it. It’s still in my house today doing its job very well. I miss quality items.
My mom still has hers.
For those that might not know, it has a rotating brush with a small storage bin to catch the crumbs. Like the carpet sweeper.
My dad was a Fuller Brush man briefly. We had moved back to his home town in a small mining and lumber region. He anticipated getting a job in one of the mines but they weren't hiring just then. Desperate for any job he signed up to sell brushes. He went door-to-door diligently about 4 weeks a month. Then his regional manager would show up and the two of them would sell to the occupants of the 4 or 5 semi-legal brothels in the area (they were owned by a partnership of the mayor, sheriff, chief of police, and other officials.) He made 95% of his income that day. After 3 months he started back at the mine.
I guess the other memory is for us Gen X’ers - How sacred was the Tupperware? I had a lunch box and inventory was done daily for its components. If I forgot something or lost something I might as well lost an expensive gem stone the way my mom reacted. LOL!!
I think Tupperware ran into the same issue that a lot of companies do. China is subsidizing competitors so they can sell their products a lot cheaper. Now they can raise those prices to maximize profits now that they put tupperware out of business.
I remember our Fuller Brush man. He was working his way through college. We always bought from him.
Life is like a Tupperware bowl you never know what's inside till you take the lid off many times there was a green moldy surprise inside
Your jokes never get old. I'm guessing that you keep them in Tupperware.
tupperware can now be bought online. I have a 20 pack of their citrus peelers, and I have used their salt and pepper shakers all my adult life. I grew up drinking out of their glasses. the real issue is that they now have a lot of competition in the plastic container market.
I like to use the much cheaper containers made by their competitors. That way when I leave a container of leftovers in the fridge lone enough for stranger-things to be growing on the food, I can afford to simply trash it container and all.
The invention of the yogurt container doomed them.
Need to get more of those peelers. Best on the market.
I am dying to find their popsicle makers, the ones I have found in stores are so lame!
@@jilbertb My kids used the same ones I had as a kid. When a couple were lost, the ones we got to replace them were not nearly the same quality.
I remember the end of Tupperware in our house was when their product was not microwavable. Sadly, I got this $#!t as part of my inheritance, being the kid that lived nearest to them when they passed on. The best of their Tupperware, Corningware, Pyrex, now move with me or fill some Goodwill shelves.
That was about the only bad thing about Tupperware, and I think that most of us discovered it accidentally. And hopefully not with loaned Tupperware from someone else's kitchen!
We grew up drinking sweet tea and Kool-Aid out of pastel colored, plastic Tupperware tumblers. My brother recently bought a new set so we could use them at his house. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
At one point over 5000 men made their living going door to door for Fuller Brush.
When I told my wife about Tupperware going bankrupt she said it was because it lasted so long. After she bought it some years ago she never had to repurchase it. The price of making a product that does not have planned obsolescence.
Yes, it lasts a long time if you don't microwave it. The cheap stuff has trouble in the microwave, but easy to throw away.
But with population growth there are always new customers. Robust international marketing becomes priority then, I would think. Keep the good word-of-mouth going too...
The newer generation buys the cheap stuff that has to be replaced a lot. There were not enough new customers to keep it going.
Yup. Tupperware lives on in my house. Best food storage containers out there. Sad to hear about the company's problems. I hope they make it.
My father in law made the first molds for Mr Tupper when they started in Massachusetts. In fact my wife still has the very first Tupper tumbler to ever get made.
I have to edit this, Steve mentioned Fuller Brush. My dad, my wife, and I were all in Fuller Brush sales. Alfred Fuller came to a sales meeting at my house in 1960 in South Portland Maine. When we visited Nova Scotia a few years ago we visited the Alfred Fuller vacation home. My wife and I "schooled" the tour guide about a lot of things.
As a current employ of Tupperware and continuous work and fun I’ve had I can say that we are still going strong and would love for others to join us and we aren’t closing our doors just fixing our big issues!
They couldn't keep a lid on their business.
I remember back in the late 50's, early 60's sitting in the car reading and playing with my toy cars while mom sold Tupperware inside another women's home. I was bored and very relieved when it was over and we could finally go home. Another memory is Dad would occasionally take me with him on his route working for a meat packing plant in southeastern Ohio to make small deliveries and take orders from little grocery stores in the tiny towns in the area. The main difference was that my dad would buy me snacks and comic books to keep me from get bored. Looking back, these are very precious memories.
I am 74 years old. My favorite broom, that I still use every day, is a Fuller Brush broom. I remember my Mom buying it from the Fuller Brush man before I went to kindergarten. It is still wonderful. Literally...they don't make 'em like that anymore!
I remember my mom selling (at one time or another) Avon, Mary Kay, Amway, Tupperware, Home Interior, Stanley Home Products and probably some others I forgot.
Hell hath no fury like a mother whose kid lost a piece of her Tupperware set. May God have mercy on your soul.
We still have Tupperware pieces from 40 years ago that still work perfectly. Though the other day I had a small piece of a shaker mixer bottle break, but it didn’t effect its function, so I can still use it. my mother sold Tupperware for a few years when was little and remember people coming to the house for parties and we had a ton of the stuff. It’s such an iconic brand that in some areas any similar product is labelled “Tupperware” by people, much the same way that a lot of people call all facial tissues Kleenex.
I tried to find out more about the bankruptcy but , the judge sealed the case 😉
The fact that Tupperware was failing to fulfill the "Lifetime Warranties" had a bit to do with there demise too.
A Judge ruled that "Lifetime Warranties" were meaningless, since some customers had died, and were thus an unknown time period.
Steve, I don’t know how you got so much information about this bankruptcy, I heard the records were sealed.
Well sealed, but there must have been a leak anyway…
My Grandmother used to have regular visits from the Fuller Brush Man, The Jewel Tea Man, The Charles Chips Man and the Avon Lady. With the occasional Tupperware party thrown in here and there. I remember those Charles Chips as being the best when I was a little kid 🥰
People seem to forget that Tupperware gave many house wives and young women away to make a little extra cash without having to have a full time job. Other then a cook at the bar this was my mom's first job, and she worked hard from there and in 1994 she was named Woman Of The Year by the A.B.W.A for her accomplishments.
They also suffer from Chinese food take-out. We reuse the containers until they break.
lol, true.
Just as with Fuller Brush, there were also Kirby vacuum cleaners.
Kirby still exists.
I inherited a Kirby that my parents bought in 1956. It lasted until about 2005. I could have gotten it fixed and it would probably still be good today, but stupid me wanted something new. Since 2005, I've probably gone through 6 or 7 vacuum cleaners, each costing $250-400. On the other hand, I've a friend that despite living in absolute poverty, got suckered into buying a $2400 Kirby from a door-to-door salesman. He still has it and never fails to brag about how great it is, although I'm fairly certain he never paid it off.
When I was a young adult creating my own household, I distinctly remember not wanting to pay Tupperware prices for a salad spinner. Bought a few cheap ones that always eventually died because they had metal bits that rusted. Finally bit the bullet and bought a Tupperware one from a kiosk at the mall. It’s still going strong, being entirely made of plastic, but I still dislike the color. More recently I have bought some hard to source pieces on eBay from a vendor in Poland. They’re just fine too, but I still don’t understand why those products weren’t made available to potential customers in the US more directly. Handy kitchen tools, each and every one, but for non-microwaveable food storage I depend on a brand that’s easy to open and easy to find.
When you said "the Fuller Brush guy" a memory from 1960 or 61 in my 6th or 7th year jump out of the recesses of my mind. Our Fuller Brush guy sold Watkins branded stuff also. Mom needed Vanilla and I followed him back to his station wagon to get the bottle. I marvelled at the load he carried, he had so many boxes in there. We had our own station wagon and full with Mom, Dad and five kids going to the beach it was not as full as his car.
Unfortunately, one of the reasons they are going out of business is because they have always had their products made here in the US. Due to US trade policies it's really hard for any manufacturing venture to compete by providing US made products.
Any suggestions?
Yes, tarrifs. But, people complain that tarrifs on foreign good will raise prices and hurt poor people.
Tarrifs raise foreign goods up to US made products making homemade competitive.
@@TheeMelloMan Yes! Stop voting for Congressmen and Senators that support trade agreements that benefit foreign labor over US labor.
Okay it's not trade policies, it's pro-Wall Street and anti-labor (Citizens) policies because SCOTUS over the decades has erased the protections (Laws) that protected American workers and consumers from out-of-control Greed. First Companies made more money by suppressing wages nationwide (Minimum Wage) and breaking protections for unions in the courts. Wages remaining flat but that doesn't provide year over year increases in dividends to shareholders so they might move manufacturing to a state that doesn't have a high minimum wage or overseas or to Mexico. American consumers have less and less money and less and less power. The rich have a lot of power. It's been a slow-roll towards turning America into a third-world shit hole to benefit the rich. I have to resort to getting Tupperware at garage sales cheap because they don't know what they have.
Hell, I still burp the Tupperware! My kids laughed when I told thek what I was doing, now they do it!
Back in 07 I bought a Craftsman socket set, one of the big ones, when Craftsman was still made in the US. Its complete and I've told my kids that it's a family heirloom!
My mother has or had a Kirby vacuum cleaner, best vacuum cleaner around. Easily lasted 20 years plus, built to last. I remember Tupperware too, I have a microwaveable container that I used frequently. There also was a company that had home parties for home decorations like wall candle holders. I remember a MASH episode where Klinger was dressed up as a door to door salesmen selling suits and I think BJ bought one with stripes, but when he received the suit the stripes were horizontal instead of vertical, funny episode. There was an episode of Married With Chilren where Peggy went to one of those parties, then started selling the items to herself, too funny. I think it was cosmetics.
This makes no sense to me. I’m a junk dealer and vintage Tupperware is one of my best sellers. I buy every piece I can find from the 60’s and 70’s and it sells fast and for the same prices it sold for new often times for more than it originally sold for. If they are going bankrupt it’s fully from mismanagement because with the right strategy they could be I just as successful as ever.
Ben’s behind the Turbine car.
Don't you hate when a Bot beats you...
Mornin' Bill
@@Bobs-Wrigles5555 I wonder where the bot got that photo of my next girlfriend?
@@user-no1cares Does your computer have antitracking for when you visit Pwnhub...😏😂
@@Bobs-Wrigles5555 I swear I don’t go there & you can’t prove a thing. 😂
I see that Steve didn't use the $100 to go buy Tupperware before it becomes unavailable.
I grew up in Kissimmee, Florida where the world headquarters was located. I remember seeing the Florida Symphony Orchestra, when I was in middle school, playing in the auditorium at their corporate campus. Many years later they sold (donated?) that half of the property to the school system which turned it into a magnet school center for the arts.
My wife loves Tupperware. I bought her some for Christmas a couple of years ago to help her replace the ones lost or stolen.
Ben is keeping the weather off the roof of the Turbine car.
My dad told me about the "Umbrella Man" that used to make the rounds through the neighborhood when he was growing up. Sounds like the Umbrella Man had a business model similar to the Fuller Brush man, except, as I understood it, the Umbrella Man carried some inventory with him in a cart. As it is, I'm just old enough to remember the Milk Man making his rounds.
Edit: My wife just reminded me about door-to-door Encyclopedia Men; I had forgotten. My parents bought a set from one such salesman when my brother and I were in school; that set is still on a bookshelf in my mom's house (dad passed away almost 20 years ago).
How times have changed!
We had an "Umbrella man" in downtown Greenville SC for ages, but what he did was repair umbrellas in his shop. Everybody knew who he was and he did very good work. He passed away at a very old age in the 90's IIRC, still working daily.
Next you’ll be reminding folks of the guy with the huge pedal-powered sharpening stone, who would come around sharpening knives and scissors.
"Speak of the devil", There's a guy who turns up every weekend at the local flea markets who does just this, even the pedal power(because there are no power points in the supermarket car park)
And the problem with that is?
@@mikeslater6246
Critics Don't Know That Good Restaurants Regularly Have All
Their Knives Blades Professionally Sharpened To The Best Angle.
Too late! I thought of that also when Steve was talking about who used to come around the neighborhoods.
In the early sixties, I would go with my mother as she went door to door selling Fuller Brush. We were in Indianapolis.
Everybody had the Tupperware measuring cups, sugar, flour containers.,,, and the bowls. I can always remember the different colors and the type of lids they use.
This is heartbreaking! The lid to my 1 gallon pitcher just cracked yesterday. I looked online to see about getting a replacement. The nearest consultant (sales person) is 35 miles away in a town I never heard of. I live in a Midwest city with a population of over 270,000 people and no one sells Tupperware.
I grew up with Tupperware. We had a pitcher like mine in the fridge most of my life. We had the cake carrier, the pie carrier (I own one), bowls, all kinds of things. The only thing I wanted from my grandmother's estate when she passed was my cup. All 14 grandchildren had a Tupperware cup with their name written in permanent ink on it. At Grandma's funeral I asked a couple of cousins and they agreed: we wanted our cups to remember family get-togethers. No one knows what happened to the cups, though.
I guess I need to act quickly to get that replacement lid.
I remember the Fuller brush man. He drove a VW Vanagon and was always dressed with a jacket and tie and carried three or four suitcases as he walked around our neighborhood. His name was Steve!
I can remember my mother hosting a Tupperware party when I was s kid. And in the 70's my wife went to several Tupperware parties and bought in addition to items for the kitchen the ball that a child would learn their shapes by inserting them into the appropriate shaped opening in the ball.
In the mid 1980s, we had one of the many sided Tupperware, about the size of a soccer ball, toys with the different sizes of parts to help teach kids different shapes replaced when my 3 year old son plopped his backside on it and cracked it. I contacted a Tupperware salesperson to buy a replacement and was informed it would be free as Tupperware has a lifetime warranty. We were young parents at the time and very impressed with the service.
Interesting fact. I have in-laws in the Philippines and found out that if you own Tupperware you have made it in life.Tupperware is even pawnable if you need cash in an emergency.
When my Dad worked at Tupperware in the 80s, the Philippines had a series of typhoons and earthquakes and all communications were brought down. They ended up re-establishing contact using a ham radio guy (Steve, can we include ham radio in this too?) and asked if Tupperware Philippines needed anything. The Morse code reply was, "Send more sales brochures." My Dad loved the Philippines after that.
There was a shoe company that sold door to door, I can’t remember the name. They were around when I began working in the mid nineteen-seventies, in manufacturing. You would pick out a shoe style, or work boot, the salesman would take your size and pertinent information. The following week he would return with your shoes for you to try on, if it worked for you, you paid him and off he went. Don’t know if they went into residential neighborhoods or only commercial/industrial areas.
I was friends with their top sales person who actually played a character called “Aunt Barbara” ….. she would dress up in total sixties regalia and played like an Italian decent newyork accent housewife….. she did extremely well in sales for them basically doing a comedy show at people’s houses then taking orders for Tupperware….. Tupperware even gave her a car as a sales award…. There is a lot of “Aunt Barbara” stuff on UA-cam if you want to see it
Tupperware...
The mythical company from my childhood, leaving ancient artifacts in my mothers kitchen 😅
*Artifacts
Interesting. I remember my ex calling every type of plastic food container "Tupperware" regardless of brand which confused me, especially since it was always so expensive as compared to Ziploc containers or whatnot.
😳 I am quite surprised, someone in marketing should probably be in trouble because I really assumed they had ceased to exist!!
Once they got people used to the idea of reusable containers to store leftovers and carry sandwiches, other (offshore) companies began selling reusable plastic boxes cheaper in stores. Tupperware attempted to move to a store (and, later, e-commerce) sales business model, but apparently couldn't compete on price. RIP
I still have pieces of Tupperware from the seventies and eighties. They still work great.
That may have been part of the problem. No planned obsolescense to get folks to buy more.
The movie “Airplane” …. Where the young couple joins the Peace Corps, goes to Africa, him to teach basketball and her to sell Tupperware.
Can’t remember the last time I heard of a Tupperware party.
Tupperware did join E-commerce market, but it didn’t really thrive. Withered, it seems. Their. Ad copy just failed to connect with me, even when I was actively trying to buy their stuff.
My wife went to a Tupperware party about 20 years ago. Last one I ever heard of.
My parents have had a set of Tupperware cups since I was old enough to remember. All the other plastic cups they’d get from different events(they never paid for a set of cups other than the Tupperware😂) would last a couple years then get thrown out, but the Tupperware withstood 20+ years of abuse from me and my siblings and are still going strong.
I'd forgotten all about the Fuller Brush Man. One showed up at our house once, in the mid to late 1960s as I recall. He put on quite a performance on our front porch; set up quite a little storefront by our front door before he rang the bell. I remember several iterations of "[fast talk] and it REALLY works!" As it turned out, my sister ordered a hairbrush, which the man delivered a few weeks later. But we never saw him or any of his brethren ever again. I guess our street wasn't too profitable.
I remember in business class that to be nimble and fast to get into any open markets is the best way to survive. Tupperware was to slow thinking it was a closed ecosystem.
Stanley, Charles Chips in Tins, Milk delivered in glass bottoms, Kerby and Electrolux vacuum, World Books and Encyclopedia Britannia.
You just described my childhood home.
@@dianeladico1769 Chattanooga was my town
@@tomeauburn I grew up in Cleveland OH. one of DH's fondest memories was of the Charles Chips man.
@@dianeladico1769 had some cousins that lived in Dayton
The company that had that business model that I really remember was Avon. Where Fuller Brush sales was done by men, Avon was done by women. Everyone knew someone who's mom or sister tried being an "Avon Lady"
Pink Cadillacs
My Father sold Fuller Brush and Watkins products, and was a door to door insurance sales man also. And was quite successful. He now sells antiques and other products online. He and my mother were some of the first people selling on eBay.
My home town still has a Fuller brush factory operating in it. Never knew they had people selling their stuff door to door. We always just went and got cleaning supplies from the outlet store at the plant.
I must by old. I hosted a Tupperware party. I still use Tupperware products. This company replaces products that have broken in daily use. I have returned several lids that have cracked and had them replaced. My replacements were several years ago. Cannot say that for any other company.
I'm 75 years old and certainly remember Tupperware parties and the Fuller Brush man, not to mention milk boxes on every doorstep and dodging the milk delivery trucks when out early delivering papers. Times have certainly changed.
My grandmother sold Tupperware. I still remember her Tupperware parties. ❤
This 80 year old never cared for tupperware because it melted. And didn't care for leftovers. Always tried to cook what was need for the meal. Believe it was a generational thing from my parents who saw too much food poisioning back in the "old days."
Really? My grandma was 80 back in the 80's and used Tupperware. Mom is now almost 80 and still uses that same Tupperware.
What in the world were you doing to melt Tupperware 😂 putting it in the oven?
@@Bino9898 It doesn't do microwave.
I still LOVE Tupperware , I remember what a big deal it was back in the 1975 to buy them at garage sale in Iran 🙏🏽💙💙
Since Tupperware lasts forever it's inevitable there wouldn't be need for more eventually.
Door-to-door sales worked in those older years because most women stayed at home. In today's world, most women work so there's no one at home to answer the door. I remember Tupperware parties (my mother ran a few of them), Fuller Brush man, and a vacuum cleaner salesman that frequented the neighborhood.
Tupperware may also be guilty of its own successes and quality products. I still have a few Tupperware containers that my mother bought 50 years ago.
Were I lived in FL in the 1990s it was very near to Tupperware HQ/main factory and they even allowed the public in to take guided tours
They tried to keep a lid on the story, but they couldn't find any lids.
This is bad... very bad. 😊