WEBVTT - How Tupperware Works 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:04.480 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:13.640 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:17.800 the Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry the Stuff 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:23.000 you Should Know herb. Have you ever heard a tupper 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.799 Warrior burp? Yeah, sort of, I mean it, you know, 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:29.400 it doesn't sound like a burb. It's just sort of like, 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.279 can you emulate one? Well, it's just like a like 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:34.960 air just sort of it's like a burb. It sounds 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.320 like a dude, yeah, something different. Yeah, but I don't 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.479 think you could call it a Tupperware bart because it 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.360 probably wouldn't sell us. Well, even a burp is a 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.080 little you know. Okay, So I guess I have heard 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.240 one before when I was a kid, but I thought 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:51.239 like there was like a burb or something like that, 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:54.640 or do you remember that cartoon. It might have been like, 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.360 h what was the Droopy I think it might have 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:02.160 been a droopy cartoon, So some sort of cartoon where 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:06.560 like they had a machine that burped radishes. But I 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:07.880 like it. It was a great I think it was 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:12.360 like the Kitchen of the Future, one great cartoon. Bert. 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:15.720 That's what I assumed the Tupperware thing was like, yeah, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:17.200 that was a big droopy fans I thought I was 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:21.280 missing out. Nope, no, it's just a little air being expelled. 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.840 But it was a very very important bit of air, 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:30.880 because Chuck. At the time that Tupperware came out, women 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:36.160 were using like basically a pot that they cooked something in, 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:40.400 maybe a bowl, and putting a shower cap over it 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:42.880 and storing it in the ice box. You know what 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:47.440 they call that primitive? That's primitive food storage. It sounds 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:49.400 like a tuk tuk would have done something like that, 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.000 not men and women in the nineteen forties, except he 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:58.560 would have used like some sort of Madagascar type animal 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.840 pelt sure them from the movie Madagascar. No, not Madagascar. 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.560 I say, that's what I'm thinking of. I say, I 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:08.400 haven't seen it one. So they're very similar. It is 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.880 setting like different climbs in different time periods. I've never 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.600 seen me either, different animal protagonists. I just I can 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:19.880 get a lot from commercials. Yeah, uh so, yeah, Tupperware, 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.239 let's let's talk about it. Um, the original patent. I 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.880 love the name of this thing, and you know it 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:27.560 was created. You want to drop this cool little fact 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:30.880 by the name the name of the guy Earl Tupper. 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.520 Yeah I never knew that. Yeah, I guess I didn't either. 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:36.680 I didn't didn't think about it. No, you think of 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:38.880 tupper war is nothing but tupper ware, and there's no 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.320 Tupper who invented It's crazy talk, right, Yeah, No, there 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:46.440 was a tupper named Earl and that tupper tup tupperware. Yes, 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:49.360 the Earl of Tupper he Uh he has a patent 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.280 um call it. Well had he didn't have it anymore. Uh. 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.760 The e s tupper open mouth container and non snap 0:02:55.840 --> 0:03:00.160 type of closure. Therefore this by the way, Yeah, that's 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.799 why I read it like that. But I was explaining 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.040 that to the everybody else. Do they know me? This 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:10.639 is going poorly? No, it's not so. Um. Let's you 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.600 want to talk a little bit about Tupper himself. Yeah. 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.960 He Um was a bit of a reclusive figure, as 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.280 we'll find, but he was also like a he was 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.280 a pretty sharp guy. I A grouch, I think is 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.640 a possible way to describe him. Maybe a bit of 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:32.840 a mad, smart, tinkering grouch. Um. He disliked his father 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.160 because he felt his father lacked ambition. And this is 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.200 when he was like ten. Right, Um, all you do 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:40.560 is just go to the races and lay around het. Well, 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:42.920 his parents owned a like a farm of sorts, but 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:44.720 I think I get the idea. It was like kind 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.840 of a harvest your own farm. And this kid, little 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.880 Earl Tupper, when he was like ten twelve, he was 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.840 like pitching the idea to to build like a children's 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.720 playground on the grounds of his pick your own farm 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.720 for you know, to at track tourists and stuff. And 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.119 his I was like, it sounds like a lot of work, totally, 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:05.840 just go to school or something. Get out of my hair. 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.480 And Arrow was like, you're gonna pay for ignoring me. 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.360 But he he was of sharp contrast to his father, 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.000 is what I'm trying to say. He was very ambitious. 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:20.360 Big Tinker came up with a lot of different patent 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:23.800 ideas and apparently patents too. Yeah he Uh he had 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.160 a book of inventions. Uh. There was a better stocking guarter, 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.360 which is a very sexy thing for a child to admit, right. Um, 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.720 A better way to remove a burst appendix. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.919 that's for real. Um, a dagger shaped comb to be 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:43.400 clipped to the belt. Um pants that wouldn't lose their crease. Um. 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:47.039 This one of great import. Yeah, the customized cigarettes, I 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.760 can't believe that didn't catch on, like for real, you 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.800 know how Coca Cola does this stupid cans and bottles 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.640 now with names. Oh now I understand. Yeah, there were 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:59.320 cigarettes that said like Sporty or the collegiate on the cigarette, 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.560 so it would have like your sports team like emblazoned 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.960 on the side. Maybe the problem is none of these 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:12.279 inventions took off. Now this guy literally well he could 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:16.800 give his inventions away, but like he almost literally couldn't 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.600 give him give them away. He he ended up manufacturing 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.479 these things and giving them away is like premiums for 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.760 other stuff like cigarettes and things like that. Yeah. So, um, 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:30.359 he starts a tree uh doctor business, Tupper Tree Doctors 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:35.679 that um failed after um the depression, people were cutting 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.760 back on things like tree doctoring. So he went out 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.880 of business and in a very fortuitous move, went and 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:47.360 worked um for Visca Lloyd Plant, which is a division 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.240 of DuPont making plastics. Right, and this is where things 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:56.800 kind of started taking shape. Yes, yes, yes, so basically 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:01.120 he gets into plastics and this town in Massachusetts that 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:04.359 he ended up in where the Vistalloid plant was, he 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:06.960 was all over New England basically growing up right, this 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:11.320 particular town was kind of like a mad scientists mecca 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.479 where like all of this stuff is going on in plastics, 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:18.440 all these little tiny plastic manufacturing outfits are, you know, 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.240 start It's like a startup town for plastics in like 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.480 the thirties or forties. They're like, we have this new thing, 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:25.520 Like what all can we do with it? Yeah? And which, 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:30.200 by the way, plastic, especially polyethylene. Polyethylene was invented by accident, 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.640 and by the forties they had still kind of they 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:39.440 perfected the polyethylene or had come out perfect, but they 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:41.760 hadn't figured out quite how to use it. And Earl 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.000 Tupper was one of those guys in the forties on 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.800 the cutting edge of taking plastics and figuring out how 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:48.680 to mold them in the right shape, how to keep 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.240 him from being oily or sticky or falling apart when 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.600 they were sitting out in the sunlight or all this stuff. 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.520 This guy is doing all these tests and he ends 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.200 up coming up thanks to getting a block of this 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.760 pure polyethylene from DuPont, the good stuff, the good stuff, 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.520 uncut stuff, um, and he figures out how to make 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:11.320 this bowl, A wonder lier bowl is what he calls it. Yeah, 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.000 and um DuPont at the time didn't think that they 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.840 could even mold plastic. Like he was smarter than their 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.360 guys because he figured out how to do it. And 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.840 Um then along with the design the the patented U 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:29.400 tupperware seal that made it so useful and famous, that 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.600 made the what sound that made the like the burping 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:37.280 sound or tooting sound. Um he originally got that idea 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.200 for the seal from paint cans, apparently, the fact that 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:41.960 you could turn a paint can upside down and it 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.760 wouldn't leak paint out all over the place. And he said, 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.320 I guess we can do this with food, you know, Yeah, 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.480 like put food in here. It's sealed. Look at the demonstration. 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.920 It's upside down and I'm shaking it and there's none 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.400 of that gravy coming out. What right, the grave is 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.680 not coming out. I can drop this bowl and it's 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:03.320 not gonna break because everyone knows how clumsy housewives are 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.040 breaking stuff all over And the fact that it, um 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:12.440 is that you burp it right, and it makes that sound, 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.760 and you're basically preserving the food for many many days 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.560 to come which was huge because a lot of the 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:23.840 people who were um homemakers in the forties and fifties, 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.360 they had lived through the depression and they remembered exactly 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.440 what it was like. So preserving food was a big deal. 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.680 And so this thing was like it's really easy to 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.640 take for granted these days, but it was very cutting 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:40.520 edge technology. Well, these days they have all those terrible 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.760 cheap oh uh, I was gonna say knockoffs are not 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:46.680 knockoffs are major brands. But you know those little cheap 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.320 plastic containers that are sold, they're they're not nearly the 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:53.400 quality of Tupperware. No tupper Warres started all that. Yeah, 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.360 and this stuff is garbage. The lids don't fit right ever, 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.280 they break, they don't, they don't do any thing that 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.240 Tupperware did. Like I have a Wonder bowl from the 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:08.240 nineteen seventies that's still like perfect. I mean it's a 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.440 little worn down, but it's still like functions perfectly right. Well, 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:15.440 it's a testament to and that other garbage that stuff, 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.280 like I don't have anything from last year. Well, it's 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:22.280 made and it was made during a time of much 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:26.920 more disposable thinking. You know, at the time it was like, 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.240 we're gonna make something now will last forever. Yeah, and 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:33.960 I think they still have a lifetime guarantees on everything. Yeah. 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:35.840 Like you could send in a tupperware piece from the 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.719 sixties and they'll, you know, if it's broken and it 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.240 meets the requirements, like you know, you didn't smash it 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.880 with a hammer or something. Um, because they can't prove you, 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:48.599 they'll give you like credits or the equivalent of what 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:50.920 you could get today or something. It's like, well, you 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:54.040 paid for that, but like, let's see what the West 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.199 Aid currency calculator has to say about that. So, um, 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:02.000 he formed Upper Plastics. Uh. Thing did not take off though, 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:03.720 um like he thought they would. He put him in 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:08.760 department stores and hardware stores for some reason, not a 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.800 good place to sell your tupperware. Yeah. I mean nowadays 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.280 I can see that, but back then you probably just 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.000 went to hardware stores for nails and hammers and stuff. Yeah, 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:18.880 I'm sure there are home goods and stuff too. It 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.760 was probably closer to a general store in the hardware 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.520 stores today, but even still, they weren't flying off the 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.880 shelves at the point. They were not. Um. So what 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.000 he did was there was another timeline going on at 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:35.840 the same time. UM Stanley Home Products was this, uh 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:41.559 basically pioneered the non door to door sales in favor 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:45.400 of hosting a party for lack of a better word, 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.280 in home demonstrations where you would gather people together. And 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:53.680 it was a guy named Norman Squires had um garnered 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:55.720 a lot of profits in this kind of sales, and 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.200 they had working for them a woman named Brownie Wise 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:03.000 and she was selling all kinds of stuff for Stanley 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.400 Home Products and uh they called it the hostess group 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:11.040 demonstration plan and she was a great, great salesperson. Yeah. 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:16.040 So these people at Stanley Home Products basically found tupperware 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:20.560 on their own and started selling it at these hostess parties. Right. Yeah, 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:25.040 she formed her own company called Tupperware Patio Parties. Oh 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.160 did she yea before she was hired. Before she was hired, 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.320 And she was selling so much of it that Earl 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.560 Tupper got in touch with her and was like, I 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.560 can't sell this stuff in stores like you're beating like 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.480 department stores in New York City sales records, and she yeah, 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:42.400 she really was. She had a lot of charms. She 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:47.480 had um she figured out that this burp thing that 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:53.800 was so essential and made this product so revolutionary, right that, Um, 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:57.320 it wasn't like intuitive, you didn't just understand how to 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.480 work it, and so it wasn't helping sale, which again 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.720 seems weird today, but back then people like, what is 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:08.200 this weird colored thing? Just go together? And they're just 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:12.480 banging them together in the isle of a hardware store crying. Um. 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:16.400 They She figured out that if you demonstrate this to people, 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:20.319 especially in like somebody's house or whatever and they've had 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:23.440 a couple of martinis and there's or Derv's, people are 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:25.680 apt to buy these things. And yeah, like you said, 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:30.600 she started out selling department stores hardware stores obviously, um, 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.360 and she got hired on by Earl Tupper. She was 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:35.800 in Detroit at the time. I think I think she'd 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:39.120 moved down to Orlando when she was hired. Oh really 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.080 by that point. Yeah, she was from Beauford, Georgia originally. Yeah, 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.199 she was from Earl Georgia. And U ended up, um 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:48.000 being married and divorced, which was pretty unusual at the time. 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:50.520 And she was a single mom. Yep, the little Jerry 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:54.760 Wise that's right. She unfortunately her husband was a violent 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.920 drunk that too, so that's not saying that. That's PBS 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.360 taken the fall for that. So she was re married 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.720 him for about six years and then it was basically like, 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:05.600 I'm gonna make my own way. He only had an 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.719 eighth grade education, and she was killing it on the 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.800 sales front. Yeah, she she really was. So it took 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:16.000 before we get any further about Brownie Wise. Great name name, yeah, 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.680 maybe not a band name, but a great name. The 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.240 brown the Brownie Wise would be a good name, or 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.640 the the Brownie Wise massacre Yeah sure, yeah, there you go, 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:30.520 or Brownie Wise over Drive. Both of those anyway for 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.120 one another. I guess the point that I'm trying to 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:50.640 get to his Let's take your break, Okay. So Brownie 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:54.720 Wise has her tupper Wear Patio Parties company out selling stores. 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:59.000 She gets hired on UM. They literally divide the company 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:03.760 into uh two sides, the Tupperware manufacturing up in Massachusetts 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.920 and then Tupperware Home Parties down in Orlando. Down in Orlando, yeah, 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.400 where she lives. Basically, Earl Tupper comes to her in 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.920 n and says, hey, how would you like to be 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.320 one of like three female high level executives in the 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.600 United States in the world I would guess, and she said, 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.840 that's sure, why not, I'll do you a favor. And 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.800 I said she was a very interesting woman. If I didn't, 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:29.400 I did in my head and meant to say it, 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:33.280 but she, Um, there's apparently a movie coming out about 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:36.360 her life, starring Sandra Bullock. You did not say that, 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.320 and I did see that, So there you go. I 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.160 couldn't find any information on except that I think it's 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.640 in uh in pre uh pre production right now. Oh, 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:48.480 I see, I think it's going to happen. But um, yeah, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:52.200 I mean she she's one of the great uh woman 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:54.560 entrepreneurs that this country has ever seen, the world has 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.440 ever seen. Really yea, because she took this tupperware, which 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:02.960 everyone except the American public agreed was great. In ninety seven, 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.880 the year that Tupper invented this stuff, Time named it 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:11.240 this amazing thing. It won design Awards. Yeah, she was 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.760 on the first woman on the cover of Business Week magazine, 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.920 right right. But even before she came along, everybody, especially 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.160 in the art world, in the design world, um said this, this, 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.680 this stuff is great. But it was just sitting there languishing, 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.640 and then then Brownie Wise comes along and just turns 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:29.120 it into a blockbuster, like turns it into it an 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:32.560 American iconic brand, which it still is today. Yeah. And 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.960 what she realized, which is uh was a stroke of genius, 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:41.240 was it's the nineteen fifties. The suburbs are happening post 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.120 World War two in a big way. Um, there's a 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.920 lot of women that are that are homemakers, that are 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.280 I guess we could just say they were bored and 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.720 looking for something to do well. Plus also they had 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:59.560 very um, they had very real constrictions on their time 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:04.000 where like they're basically freedom of movement. They didn't have cars, 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.240 they didn't have things like this, they didn't have a 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.400 lot of ways to make money. Yeah. Well, and again 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:09.960 they were out in the suburbs for the first time. 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.960 It's not like many of these were connected by subway 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.280 or anything. That was still an inner city deal. Right. So, 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:18.200 But rather than view these places as fast like waste 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.800 lands of isolation, Brownie Wise said, no, these are like 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.560 little tiny social networks where people know and trust one 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.800 another and they're board out of their skulls and they're 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.240 looking for ways to make money. Like so, not only 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.360 do you have a really great market to sell this to, 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.240 you have a really great workforce that's just sitting there, idol. 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.640 And she said, how would you gals like to sell tupperware? 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.920 And they went, let's do this, that's right. And what 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.080 she did was came up with a system where and 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:50.440 you could work your way up the chain, um, from 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:52.760 sales all the way. Well, let's let's just detail it. 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.840 What you are is your consultant at first, which is 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.840 out there, you know, holding the parties, hosting these parties. 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.000 Talk about everybody's till yeah, and then you can work 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.840 your up to manager if you organize a certain number 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:13.600 of parties, and then managers, uh, we're eventually recruiting other women. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.320 So if you recruit enough women and increased sales, then 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.600 you could rise to distributor. And that was the highest 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.520 level you could attain at that point. Yes, you could 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:25.320 be a distributor. You have your own office, you have 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.399 your network of managers, and then they managed the consultants 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:33.399 or the party throwers, party hosts, and um. Basically she 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:38.240 started her own army of salespeople. Yeah, so incentibized salespeople. 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:44.000 Right now, there are two point nine million people in 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:48.040 the world. Every three seconds there's another top waur party. 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:50.720 But we're getting ahead of ourselves, right, So she she 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.280 put together this workforce and again it was UM, this 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:55.879 guy named Norman Squires who came up with this idea 0:17:56.359 --> 0:18:01.439 that led to UM being a huge, huge hip for tupperware, 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:07.239 but also later on avon Um and Mary Kay and 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.200 Pampered Chef and like all of these, all of these 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:15.360 brands that like are sold through hostess parties basically get 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:19.960 you in our house and get you drunk and just 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:24.120 leave me a blank Checkly, but the it wasn't invented 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.520 by Brownie wise, but she definitely perfected it for sure. 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:30.399 So UM she tapped this workforce. And one of the 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.800 ways that she kept people excited and loyal not just 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:38.040 the fact that they could rise throughout this hierarchy UM 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.320 in the tupperware industry, but there there was also like 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.640 this thing that she created called the Jubilee every year 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:47.679 down Orlando. It was a big company party it was, 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.399 and they would just pull out all the stops like 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:55.120 they would bury fur coats. They were bury blenders. One 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.160 of the buyers once said that he bought a hundred 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.800 thousand blenders once for this jubilee. They just bring all 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:04.239 these tupperware sales associates and just basically throw them a 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:06.520 party for a few days and let them just win 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:08.959 free stuff and have a great time. Yeah. And when 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.040 you say, Barry, I think we should explains that sounds 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:14.480 really weird. They would bury these prizes and people would 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.480 go and dig them up. Right. It wasn't like you 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:19.360 can't have this. Look at what you can't have, we're 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:21.280 burying it. They just sounded fun. You're like, they bury 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:24.240 for coats, they bury anything that moves. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:26.440 but it was all part of the fun. Apparently they 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:30.240 lost a lot of them too. Yeah. Years later, Um, 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.479 at the at the Tupperware headquarters in ORLEANSO, they went 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:35.840 to dig a pond and they found a bunch of 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.760 the prizes that had never been found. Yes, some say 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:46.080 there's still for coats buried all over Orlando by the illuminati. Right. So, um, 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.359 those are the big jubilee parties, the big company parties. 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:53.480 Great for morale. Um. The hostess uh themselves or the 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:58.560 consultants would um, they would make percentage. Uh, they basically 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:00.920 make a cut what they were able to sell as 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:04.959 well as get prizes. Um, like these really neat prizes 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:06.800 and the more parties you hosted, the better the prizes 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:11.040 would get. So it's like it's like the Wild West. 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.600 It's the Heyday for these women. They're like earning their 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.520 own money for a change. They're getting these great prizes. 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:19.560 They're feeling great about themselves. They're not bored any longer. 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.120 And their husbands were like, WHOA, what's going on here? 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.040 Give me that money you made? Yeah, exactly. And things 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.200 were so successful with this model that that was their 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.239 only sales model up until the late nineteen eighties. Right, 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:34.000 You couldn't even buy the stuff in stores. No, he 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.879 just stopped. It wasn't even worth the money or effort 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:39.640 to distribute it. The stories. They just did it through 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:44.119 parties and home parties. Thank you, Brownie Wise all right, So, um, 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:48.240 and like you said in they started selling it through 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:54.720 um catalogs, I guess, uh, yeah, I think they. I've 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.480 seen like older catalogs from like the fifties and sixties, 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.119 So I don't know what that means. Maybe over the 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:03.520 phone you saw Tupperware one. Yeah, it's on our it's 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:05.720 on the podcast pitch for this episode. There's a link 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:09.000 to this kind of design layout and it has some catalogs. 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.640 So it must have been like ordered by phone. Oh yeah, 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.480 maybe so. And then just about ten years later, Tupperware 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.960 had their first website, which e commerce in that was 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:23.879 fairly forward thinking. Yeah that's true, you know. Yeah, um, 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:29.520 so this caught like wildfire today you can it's not 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:33.280 just like an American institution. There are Tupperware parties, like 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.200 we said, at the rate of one every three seconds, 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.280 and more than a hundred countries around the world. I 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:41.560 had no idea that Tupperware was that popular in like 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:45.880 Asia and India, And they said half a million, more 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:48.920 than half a million every year in France alone. Yeah, 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.720 of Tupperware sales are outside of the US these days. Yeah, 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.159 and it's a I mean, like it's got it moving 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:58.320 like gangbusters. Last I saw, I was trading at like 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:00.919 sixty three dollars a share, which is down from like 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:05.280 a hundred in December. Maybe. Um, Like it's it's a 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:09.119 really set company again these days, Like it's been able 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:12.840 to just be on the brink of utter irrelevance when 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:15.560 it finds a new market, when it figures out a 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.200 new way to do to sell, when it figures out 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:22.040 a new product, like currently right now in China. Um, 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.080 Tupperware is making tons of cash selling a thousand dollar 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:28.960 water filter, and they're doing it by traveling from town 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:32.560 to town and setting up these in home demonstrations or 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:35.480 public demonstrations and showing how to do it. So they're 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:38.280 like taking the Tupperware model that Brownie Wise like really 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:41.359 perfected and and figuring out how it best works and 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:44.560 cultures around the world. Yeah, I know. They make um also, 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:47.560 like uh, depending on your country and what they eat, 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:51.879 like certain shaped um containers, right like round bread containers 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:55.840 for non in India. How about that? So what happened 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:59.280 to Brownie Wise? I guess she retired, was thanked, carried 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:03.679 out on everyone shoulders, and lived a great fulfilled life 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:07.000 until her death. Right. Well, we're gonna tell you right 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:30.639 after this break, all right, Josh, let's fast forward to um. 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:36.000