WEBVTT - Selects: How Tupperware Works 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:03.600 Hello, friends, Do you want to know how Tupperware works 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:06.080 all over again? But you're in the right spot because 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:11.840 it is a throwback time to how Tupperware works. This 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:17.560 is a good one. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:26.680 a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.840 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W Chuck Bryant, 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:35.000 and there's Jerry. So this is stuff you should know herb. 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.920 Have you ever heard a tupper Warrior burp? Yeah? Sort of? 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:42.360 I mean it, you know, it doesn't sound like a burb. 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.239 It's just sort of like, can you emulate one? Well, 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:47.880 it's just like a like air just sort of. It 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.240 doesn't sound like a burb. It sounds like a dude, yeah, 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.600 something different. Yeah, but I don't think you could call 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:58.000 it a Tupperware bart because it probably wouldn't sell us much. Well, 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:00.800 even a burp is a little you know. Okay, So 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:02.560 I guess I have heard one before when I was 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:04.600 a kid, But I thought like there was like a 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.360 burp or something like that. Or do you remember that cartoon? 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.200 It might have been like a what was the Droopy? 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.400 I think it might have been a droopy cartoon. So 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.120 some sort of tech savory cartoon, where like they had 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:21.560 a machine that burped radishes. But I like it. It 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:23.039 was a great I think it was like the Kitchen 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:28.760 of the Future, one great cartoon Bert. That's what I assumed. 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:30.760 The tupperware thing was like, Yeah, that was a big 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.040 droopy fans I thought I was missing out. Nope, No, 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.520 it's just a little air being expelled. But it was 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:41.920 a very very important bit of air because Chuck. At 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:46.280 the time that tupperware came out, women were using like 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:51.680 basically a pot that they cooked something in, maybe a bowl, 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.840 and putting a shower cap over it and storing it 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:57.960 in the ice box. You know what they call that 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:02.800 primitive that primitive food storage. It sounds like tuk Tuk 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:06.440 would have done something like that, not men and women 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.440 in the nineteen forties, except he would have used like 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:15.360 some sort of Madagascar type animal pelt sure from the 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.480 movie Madagascar. No, not Madagascar. I say, that's what I'm 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.880 thinking of. I say, I haven't seen it the one. 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.440 So they're very similar. It is setting like different climbs 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:27.440 in different time periods. I've never seen me. They're different 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.040 animal protagonists. I just I can get a lot from 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:35.880 commercials yeah. Uh so, yeah, Tupperware. Let's let's talk about it. Um, 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:37.760 the original pat and I love the name of this thing, 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.000 and you know it was created. You want to drop 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.840 this cool little fact by the name, the name of 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:48.200 the guy, Earl Tupper. Yeah I never knew that. Yeah, 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:50.760 I guess I didn't either. I didn't didn't think about it. No, 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.160 you think of Tupper wears nothing but tupper ware, and 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:56.440 there's no Tupper who invented It's crazy talk, right, Yeah? No, 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.640 there was a Tupper named Earl and that Tupper tup 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.080 tup for why yes, the Earl of Tupper he uh 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:05.360 he has a patent um call it, well had he 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.440 doesn't have it anymore. Uh. The e s tupper open 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:12.480 mouth container and non snap type of closure. Therefore this 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:15.440 by the way, Yeah, that's why I read it like that. 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.560 But I was explaining that to the everybody else. Do 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:24.400 they know me? This is going poorly? No, it's not so. Um. 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.320 Let's you want to talk a little bit about Tupper himself. Yeah. 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.520 He um was a bit of a reclusive figure, as 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.960 we'll find, but he was also like he was a 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.880 pretty sharp guy. I a grouch, I think, is it 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:46.400 possible way to describe him maybe a bit of a mad, smart, tinkering, grouchy. Um. 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.360 He disliked his father because he felt his father lacked ambition. 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.200 And this is when he was like ten, right, Um, 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:53.960 all you do is just go to the races and 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.560 lay around. He well, his parents owned a like a 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:58.800 farm of sorts, but I think I get the idea. 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.440 It was like kind of a harvest your own farm. 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.640 And this kid, little Earl Tupper, when he was like 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.960 ten twelve, he was like pitching the idea to to 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:10.240 build like a children's playground on the ground of this 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.720 pick your own farm for you know, to attract tourists 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.040 and stuff. And his dad was like, it sounds like 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.680 a lot of work. Totally, just go to school or something. 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.360 Get out of my hair. And Earl was like, you're 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:27.400 gonna pay for ignoring me. But he he was of 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:29.920 sharp contrast to his father, is what I'm trying to say. 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:33.839 He was very ambitious. Big tinker came up with a 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.640 lot of different patent ideas and apparently patents too. Yeah. 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.200 He uh, he had a book of inventions. Uh. There 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.600 was a better stocking guarter, which is a very sexy 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.039 thing for a child. To admit, right, UM, a better 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:52.000 way to remove a burst appendix. Yeah, yeah, that's for real. UM, 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:54.440 A dagger shaped comb to be clipped to the belt. 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.640 Um pants that wouldn't lose their crease. UM. One of 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.480 great import the customized cigarettes. I can't believe that didn't 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.160 catch on, Like for real, you know how Coca Cola 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.040 does those uh stupid cans and bottles now with names? 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.240 Oh now I understand. Yeah, there were cigarettes that said 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.599 like Sporty or the collegiate on the cigarette, so it 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:18.800 would have like your sports team like emblazoned on the side. 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.800 Maybe the problem is none of these inventions took off. 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:27.400 You know this guy literally well he could give his 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:31.840 inventions away, but like he almost literally couldn't give him 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.680 give them away. He he ended up manufacturing these things 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.599 and giving them away as like premiums for other stuff 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.520 like cigarettes and things like that. Yeah. So, UM he 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.960 starts a a tree uh doctor business, Tupper tree Doctors 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:50.279 that UM failed after um the depression, people were cutting 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.320 back on things like tree doctoring, so he went out 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:57.440 of business and in a very fortuitous move, went and 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.960 worked UM for Visca aid Plant, which is a division 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.840 of DuPont making plastics, right, and this is where things 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:11.400 kind of started taking shape. Yes, yes, yes, So basically 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:15.719 he gets into plastics and this town in Massachusetts that 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.919 he ended up in where the viscaloid plant was. He 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.320 was all over New England basically growing up, right, but 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:25.000 this particular town was kind of like a mad scientists 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.200 mecca where like all of this stuff is going on 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:32.360 in plastics, all these little tiny plastic manufacturing outfits are, 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.160 you know, start It's like a startup town for plastics 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:37.359 in like the thirties or forties, because they're like, we 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:39.000 have this new thing, like what all can we do 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.440 with it? Yeah? And which, by the way, plastic, especially polyethylene. 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:47.320 Polyethylene was invented by accident, and by the forties they 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:52.000 had still kind of they perfected the polyethylene or had 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.240 come out perfect, but they hadn't figured out quite how 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:57.320 to use it. And Earl Tupper was one of those 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.880 guys in the forties on the cutting edge of taking 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.159 plastic and figuring out how to mold him in the 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:04.719 right shape, how to keep him from being oily or 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:07.520 sticky or falling apart. When they were sitting out in 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.119 the sunlight or all this stuff. This guy is doing 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.320 all these tests and he ends up coming up thanks 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.800 to getting a block of this pure polyethylene from DuPont. 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.280 The good stuff, the good stuff, the uncut stuff. Um. 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.080 And he figures out how to make this bowl a 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.559 wonder lire bowl is what he calls it. Yeah, and um, 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.000 DuPont at the time didn't think that they could even 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:33.040 mold plastic. Like he was smarter than their guys because 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.360 he figured out how to do it. And um. Then 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:41.360 along with the design, the the patented tupperware seal that 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.480 made it so useful and famous, that made the what 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:50.400 sound that made the like the burping sound or tooting sound. Um. 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.960 He originally got that idea for the seal from paint cans, apparently, 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:56.080 the fact that you could turn a paint can upside 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.480 down and it wouldn't leak paint out all over the place. 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:00.640 And he said, I guess we can do us with food, 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.640 you know, yeah, like put food in here. It's sealed. 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.480 Look at the demonstration. It's upside down and I'm shaking 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.440 it and there's none of that gravy coming out. What right, 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:12.520 the grave is not coming out. I can drop this 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.880 bowl and it's not gonna break because everyone knows how 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:20.480 clumsy housewives are breaking stuff all over And the fact 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:25.960 that it um is that you burp it right and 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:30.080 it makes that sound, and you're basically preserving the food 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.360 for many, many days to come, which was huge because 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.000 a lot of the people who were um homemakers in 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.559 the forties and fifties, they had lived through the depression 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.080 and they remembered exactly what it was like. So preserving 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.760 food was a big deal. And so this thing was 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.520 like it's really easy to take for granted these days, 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.160 but it was very cutting edge technology. Well, these days 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.280 they have all those terrible cheap oh uh, I was 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.360 gonna say knockoffs are not knockoffs are major brands. But 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:02.640 you know those little cheap plastic containers that are sold, 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.760 they're they're not nearly the quality of Tupperware. No, Tupperware 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.600 started all that. Yeah, and this stuff is garbage. The 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.000 lids don't fit right ever, they break, they don't they 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.760 don't do anything that Tupperware did. Like I have a 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:21.840 Wonder bowl from the nineteen seventies that's still like perfect. 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:23.960 I mean, it's a little worn down, but it's still 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:28.280 like functions perfectly right. Well, it's a testament to tupperware 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:30.680 and that other garbage that stuff, Like I don't have 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:34.000 anything from last year. Well it's made and it was 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:39.720 made during a time of much more disposable thinking. You know. 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:42.240 At the time, it was like we're going to make 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:44.240 something now will last forever. Yeah, and I think they 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.720 still have a lifetime guarantees on everything. Yeah, Like you 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.160 could send in a tupperware piece from the sixties and they'll, 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.360 you know, if it's broken and it meets the requirements, 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:57.240 like you know, you didn't smash it with a hammer 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:01.199 or something. Um, because they can prove you. They'll give 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.480 you like credits or the equivalent of what you could 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.600 get today or something. It's like, well you paid for that. 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:10.000 But like let's see what the West Aid currency calculator 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:13.679 has to say about that. So, um, he formed upper Plastics. Uh. 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.480 Things did not take off though, um like he thought 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.319 they would. He put him in department stores and hardware 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.800 stores for some reason. Oh yeah, not a good place 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.640 to sell your tupperware. Yeah. I mean nowadays I can 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.120 see that, but back then you probably just went to 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.800 hardware stores for nails and hammers and stuff. Yeah, I'm 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:33.600 sure there are home goods and stuff too. It was 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.959 probably closer to a general store in the hardware stores today, 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.760 but even still, they weren't flying off the shelves at 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.840 the point they were not. UM. So what he did 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.160 was there was another timeline going on at the same time. 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:53.760 UM Stanley Home Products was this, uh, basically pioneered the 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:58.559 non door to door sales in favor of hosting a 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.760 party for lack of a better word, in home demonstrations 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.160 where you would gather people together. And it was a 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:08.600 guy named Norman Squires had um garnered a lot of 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.440 profits in this kind of sales, and they had working 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.320 for them a woman named Brownie Wise, right, and she 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.280 was selling all kinds of stuff for Stanley Home Products 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.080 and uh they called it the hostess group demonstration plan 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:26.240 and she was a great, great salesperson. Yeah. So these 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:31.000 people at Stanley Home Products basically found Tupperware on their 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:35.160 own and started selling it at these hostess parties. Right. Yeah, 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:39.600 she formed her own company called Tupperware Patio Parties. Oh 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.760 did she? Yeah, before she was hired. Before she was hired, 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.840 and she was selling so much of it that Earl 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.120 Tupper got in touch with her and was like, I 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:51.120 can't sell this stuff in stores like you're beating, like 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.520 department stores in New York City sales records she and 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:56.880 she yeah, she really was. She had a lot of charms. 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:00.720 She had. Um. She figured out that this burp thing 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:05.560 that was so essential and made this product so revolutionary, 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:10.559 right that, um, it wasn't like intuitive, you didn't just 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:14.560 understand how to work it, and so it wasn't helping sales, 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.600 which again seems weird today, but back then, you know, 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:21.720 people like, what is this weird colored thing? Right? Does 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:23.800 go together? And they were just banging them together in 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:28.000 the aisle of a hardware store crying. Um. They she 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.880 figured out that if you demonstrate this to people, especially 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.000 in like somebody's house or whatever and they've had a 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.360 couple of martinis and there's or Derv's, people are apt 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:40.360 to buy these things. And yeah, like you said, she 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:45.400 started out selling department stores hardware stores obviously. Um, and 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.040 she got hired on by Earl Tupper. She was in 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.600 Detroit at the time. I think I think she'd moved 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:54.520 down to Orlando when she was hired. Really by that point, Yeah, 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.360 she was from Beauford, Georgia, originally. Yeah, she was from Earl, 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:01.000 Georgia and uh ended up um being married and divorced, 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:03.040 which was pretty unusual at the time. And she was 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.000 a single mom. Yep, the little Jerry Wise. That's right. 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:10.200 She Unfortunately her husband was a violent drunk. I saw 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.840 that too, So that's not saying that, that's PBS taking 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:14.959 the fall for twe So she was only married to 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:18.280 him for about six years and then it was basically like, 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:20.160 I'm gonna make my own way. He only had an 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.320 eighth grade education, and she was killing it on the 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.360 sales front. Yeah, she she really was. So it took 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.520 before we get any further about Brownie Wise. Great name, 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:31.920 awesome name. Yeah, maybe not a band name, but a 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.120 great name. The brown the Brownie Wise would be a 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:39.760 good name. Or the the Brownie Wise Massacre. Yeah sure, yeah, 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:43.640 there you go, or Brownie Wise over drive. Both of 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.280 those anyway for one another. I guess the point that 0:13:47.280 --> 0:14:04.400 I'm trying to get to. Let's take a break. Okay, 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.480 So Brownie Wise has her Tupperware patio Parties company out 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:14.040 selling stores. She gets hired on um they literally divide 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:18.319 the company into uh two sides, the Tupperware manufacturing up 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.040 in Massachusetts and then Tupperware home parties down in Orlando. 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:26.120 Down in Orlando, yeah, where she lives. Basically, Earl Tupper 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.960 comes to her in n and says, Hey, how would 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.600 you like to be one of like three female high 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:35.240 level executives in the United States in the world, I 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:38.640 would guess, And she said, that's sure, why not, I'll 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.360 do you a favor. And I said she was a 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:43.840 very interesting woman. If I didn't, I did in my 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.640 head and meant to say it, but she, Um, there's 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:50.800 apparently a movie coming out about her life, starring Sandra Bullock. 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:52.720 You did not say that, and I did see that, 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.400 So there you go. I couldn't find any information on 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.720 except that I think it's in uh in pre uh 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:01.920 pre production right now. Oh, I see, I think it's 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.760 going to happen. But um, yeah, I mean she she's 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:09.160 one of the great uh woman entrepreneurs that this country 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.160 has ever seen, the world has ever seen. Really, yeah, 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.640 because she took this tupper wear, which everyone except the 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.840 American public agreed was great. In ninety seven, the year 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:24.160 that Tupper invented this stuff, Time named it this amazing thing. 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.280 It won design awards. Yeah, she was on the first 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.760 woman on the cover of Business Week magazine, right right, 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.600 but even before she came along, everybody, especially in the 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.600 art world, in the design world, um said this this, 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.200 this stuff is great. But it was just sitting there languishing. 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.120 And then the brownie wise comes along and just turns 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.600 it into a blockbuster, like turns it into it an 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.080 American iconic brand, which it still is today. Yeah. And 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.480 what she realized, which is uh, was a stroke of genius, 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:56.680 was it's the nineteen fifties. The suburbs are happening post 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.600 World War two in a big way. Um, there's a 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.840 lot of the men that are that are homemakers, that 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:06.040 are I guess we could just say they were bored 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.000 and looking for something to do well. Plus also they 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:14.720 had very um, they had very real constrictions on their 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.960 time where like they're basically freedom of movement. They didn't 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:21.560 have cars, they didn't have things like this, they didn't 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:23.480 have a lot of ways to make money. Yeah. Well, 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:25.040 and again they were out in the suburbs for the 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:27.360 first time. It's not like many of these were connected 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.800 by subway or anything. That was still an inner city deal. Right. So, 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.680 But rather than view these places as vast like waste 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.320 lands of isolation. Brownie Wise said, no, these are like 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:41.040 little tiny social networks where people know and trust one 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:44.280 another and they're bored out of their skulls and they're 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.720 looking for ways to make money. Like so, not only 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.840 do you have a really great market to sell this to, 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.760 you have a really great workforce that's just sitting there idol. 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:56.160 And she said, how would you gals like to sell tupperware? 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.400 And they went, let's do this, that's right. And what 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:01.560 she did was came up with a system where and 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:05.960 you could work your way up the chain um from 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.280 sales all the way. Well, let's let's just detail it. 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:12.359 What you are is your consultant at first, which is 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.359 out there, you know, holding the party, hosting these parties. 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.280 We'll talk about everybody's chilling. Yeah, and then you can 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.040 work your up to manager if you organize a certain 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:28.280 number of parties, and then managers, uh, we're eventually recruiting 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:32.639 other women. So if you recruit enough women and increased sales, 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.680 then you could rise to distributor. And that was the 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.800 highest level you could attain at that point. Yes, you 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:40.720 could be a distributor. You have your own office, you 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:43.240 have your network of managers and then they manage the 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:48.720 consultants or the party throwers, party hosts, and UM basically 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.320 she started her own army of salespeople. Yeah, so Chuck 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:58.280 incentibized salespeople. Right now, there are two point nine million 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.360 people in the world selling tupperware. Every three seconds, there's 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.040 another Tupperware party. But we're getting ahead of ourselves, right, 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.239 So she she put together this workforce. And again it 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.680 was UM, this guy named Norman Squires who came up 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:15.040 with this idea that led to UM being a huge, 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:20.359 huge hit for Tupperware, but also later on avon Um 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:25.120 and Mary Kay and Pampered Chef and like all of these, 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:29.600 all of these brands that like are sold through hostess 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.399 parties basically get you in our house and get you drunk, 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:37.560 and so just just leave me a blank check basically. 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.679 But the it wasn't invented by Brownie Wise, but she 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:45.480 definitely perfected it for sure. So UM she tapped this workforce. 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:47.960 And one of the ways that she kept people excited 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.960 and loyal not just the fact that they could rise 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:55.880 throughout this hierarchy UM in the tupperware industry, but there 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:58.520 there was also like this thing that she created called 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:02.600 the Jubilee every year down Orlando. It's a big company party, 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.760 it was. And they would just pull out all the stops. 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:10.040 Like they would bury fur coats, they would bury blenders. 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:12.320 One of the buyers once said that he bought a 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.720 hundred thousand blenders once for the Jubilee. They would just 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.280 bring all these Tupperware sales associates and just basically throw 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:21.520 them a party for a few days and let them 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.320 just win free stuff and have a great time. And 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:26.240 when you say, Barry, I think we should explain, because 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:29.399 it sounds really weird. They would bury these prizes and 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.240 people would go and dig them up. Right. It wasn't 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:34.600 like you can't have this. Look at what you can't have. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.320 We're burying It just sound you're like, they'd bury fur coats, 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:39.879 they'd bury anything that moved. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, but 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.280 it was all part of the fun. Apparently they lost 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:46.040 a lot of them too. Yeah. Years later, um at 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.119 the at the Tupperware headquarters in Orlando, they went to 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.439 dig a pond and they found a bunch of the 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.520 prizes that had never been found. Yes, some say there's 0:19:54.560 --> 0:20:01.560 still fur coats buried all over Orlando. By the illuminati. Right. So, um, 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:03.920 those are the big jubilee parties, a big company parties, 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:09.000 great for morale. Um. The hostess uh themselves or the 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:14.239 consultants would um, they would make percentage. They'd basically make 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:16.760 a cut what they were able to sell, as well 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.520 as get prizes. Um like these really neat prizes. And 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:22.760 the more parties you hosted, the better the prizes would get. 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.879 So it's like it's like the wild West. It's the 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.639 heyday for these women. They're like earning their own money 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:33.000 for a change. They're getting these great prizes. They're feeling 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.840 great about themselves. They're not bored any longer. And their 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.560 husbands were like, WHOA, what's going on here? Give me 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.879 that money you made? Yeah, exactly. And things were so 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:45.359 successful with this model that that was their only sales 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.159 model up until the late nineteen eighties. Right. You couldn't 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:50.160 even buy the stuff in stores. No, he just stopped. 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:52.960 It wasn't even worth the money or effort to distribute 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:56.600 his stories. They just did it through parties and home parties. 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:00.560 Thank you, Brownie Wise. Right, so um, in like you said, 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:06.000 in eighty they started selling it through UM catalogs. I 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:10.600 guess uh yeah, I think they cat I've seen like 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:13.119 older catalogs from like the fifties and sixties, So I 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:15.200 don't know what that means. Maybe over the phone, you 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:19.159 saw Tupperware one catalog. Yeah, it's on our it's on 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:21.359 the podcast page for this episode. There's a link to 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.520 this kind of design layout and it has some catalogs. 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:27.120 So it must have been like ordered by phone. Oh yeah, 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:29.280 maybe so. And then just about ten years later in 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:35.320 Tupperware had their first website, which e commerce in that 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:38.400 was fairly forward thinking. Yeah, that's true, you know. Yeah, 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:44.840 um so this caught like wildfire. Today you can it's 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.400 not just like an American institution. There are Tupperware parties, 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:51.440 like we said, at the rate of one every three seconds, 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:54.760 and more than a hundred countries around the world. I 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:57.040 had no idea that Tupperware was that popular in like 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:01.360 Asia and India, and they said half a million, more 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:04.400 than half a million every year in France alone. Yeah, 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:09.280 of Tupperware sales are outside of the US these days. Yeah, 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:11.679 and it's a I mean like it's got it's moving 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:13.800 like gangbusters. Last I saw I was trading at like 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:16.399 sixty three dollars a share, which is down from like 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:20.800 a hundred in December. Maybe, UM like it's it's a 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:24.560 really set company again these days, like it's been able 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:28.280 to just be on the brink of utter irrelevance when 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.040 it finds a new market, when it figures out a 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:33.800 new way to to sell, when it figures out a 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:39.320 new product, like currently right now in China, um Tupperware 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.200 is making tons of cash selling a thousand dollar water filter, 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:44.880 and they're doing it by traveling from town to town 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:49.280 and setting up these in home demonstrations or public demonstrations 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:51.439 and showing how to do it. So they're like taking 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:55.000 the Tumperware model that Brownie Wise like really perfected and 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:57.640 and figuring out how it best works and cultures around 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:00.080 the world. Yeah, I know. They make um all so 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:03.080 like h depending on your country and what they eat, 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:07.399