Just following up on my last post on the Tupperware! film. The documentary skims over the business aspect, but some of it's quite timely.
In hard times, women sell Tupperware
This week the NY Times reported new economic data showing a reversal in women's gains in employment and pay. As the US economy slackens, both men and women are leaving the workforce, and many women aren't returning to work. The important corollary finding is that this attrition is not due to women choosing to stay home. Yet again, "it's the economy, stupid".As women's employment drops, Tupperware sales rise. In March, CBS Evening News discussed Tupperware sales as supplemental income. Tupperware CEO Rick Goings explained that
Direct selling in general is counter cyclical. That means when economies are soft, you usually have higher unemployment, and when there's higher unemployment there's a larger recruiting pool. And the number one driver of direct-selling companies is recruiting the sales force.
CBS Eye to Eye: Tupperware CEO Rick Goings
Passing the bowl from women to recent immigrants
Direct-sales schemes targeted toward women typically have low startup costs. This low barrier to entry makes the business accessible to people without a lot of investment capital and, as Goings pointed out, there's no minimum educational level and no experience required.That combination worked for Brownie Wise and other working-class women. I suppose it's a logical progression that Tupperware was highlighted in a CBS online show about a family of recent immigrants, The Papdits:
The writer of the Borat movie and Da Ali G Show brings outrageous comedy to CBS.com with The PapditsIn the Tupperware! documentary, the Tupperware parties have an atmosphere of self-conscious gentility: the hostess works hard to present her wares as both functional and attractive, and strangely specialized party items such as deviled-egg serving trays are hot sellers. It's mete food for parody, and The Papdits upends those conventions to poke fun at both the Tupperware phenomenon and the new immigrants' cultural tone-deafness.
A Kashmiri family is criss-crossing the US searching for the American dream with a camera crew on their tails. Gopi, the outspoken husband and father, believes America is the land of opportunity and sees himself as Donald Trump in an RV. Their future, he believes, is in crystal. He's just not quite sure what that is, or if it's legal. The family's first stop is Mount Ida, Arkansas, where wife Ritshi tries to become one of the local girls by hosting a neighbourhood Tupperware party, and son Bhaskar has some trouble handling a job as a caddy at the local country club. Can the Papdits make a life in America?
The Papdits: Ritsi's first Tupperware party
And the rest of the world
It's one thing when a new product becomes popular overseas. But isn't it a little odd to export the entire peculiar cultural phenomenon that is Tupperware? Not that Tupperware, or the selling of it, is a bad thing; I just have a very 1950s Americana image of the whole enterprise.However, I'm clearly out of date. More than 80 percent of Tupperware's sales are now overseas. Most nations buy similar products, with a few tweaks to the Tupperware catalog. And most Tupperware dealers have similar motivations. In fact, create a Tupperware army anywhere in the world and you may get similar upheavals:
In Soweto, South Africa, Tupperware has a director who makes a six-figure income and drives a Mercedes. ...The more things change...
But she makes it look like the car was bought by her husband because of traditional stigma against women being the high earners in a family.
... The more they change
The Tupperware biz is changing. According to PRI Marketplace, men now make up close to one percent of the Tupperware sales force; in 2006 three of the top 10 US sellers were men. Even the rapper Ice T threw a Tupperware party for charity.These new Tupperware gents are changing the rules: selling online (no dressy little parties!), creating their own sales organizations, stealing each other's customers, fraudulently driving up each other's internet advertising costs.... The old-guard Tupperware ladies must be in shock. And someday soon perhaps the Soweto director's husband really will sell enough Tupperware Cupcake Couriers to buy a Mercedes.
4 Comments:
The direct selling profession is truly growing up. So much so that there is a professional organization that actually certifies direct selling leaders, the Direct Selling Women's Alliance. People from 100s of different companies come together for training and support and on a mission to uplift the reputation of direct sellers everywhere. Some of the top Tupperware leaders are involved as well as those from many other companies.
Karen Clark
Story Time Felts
Thanks, Karen. That makes a lot of sense. Of course there would be a professional organization now, given how long women have been doing direct sales. It's one of the fields where women have a solid history--thanks, Brownie Wise!
Now that you point it out, I think the connection to the present is one more element that's missing in the documentary. I said in my last post that it's a great slice of '50s life, but I would have liked more exploration of the social and economic issues pushing women toward direct sales (and the impact that women's direct sales had on society and the economy). That interest is why I connected the dots between the NY Times and CBS pieces and wrote this second post. But I would have been interested in seeing the documentarist's take on how the direct sales phenomenon has evolved today.
(Though to be fair, the documentary is short and interesting, and it did its job by making me curious about the subject!)
For you, Tupperware has the 50s Americana feel. For me, it's a British 70s thing: which is probably about when it came over here. All lurid oranges and greens.
The economy of tupperware (and their many many cousins - sex toys, jewellery and cosmetics all sold through these parties) works because they are being sold (in my limited experience) to people who don't really want them but feel obliged to buy something from a friend.
For that reason, to call this a 'profession' strikes me as somewhat euphimistic.
Ok - strike me down!
For me, it's a British 70s thing: which is probably about when it came over here. All lurid oranges and greens.
I hope the UK branch has some equally absurd history--the Tupperware Jubilees in Orlando look like a riot.
The economy of tupperware ... works because they are being sold (in my limited experience) to people who don't really want them but feel obliged to buy something from a friend. ... to call this a 'profession' strikes me as somewhat euphimistic.
I have a slightly different angle on it. Though I probably underrate the social pressure aspect, as I've never experienced a pimp-my-friends party. (I've bought one Tupperware item, through their website.)
It's not one of the professional fields, but it's micro-entrepreneurship. I think for some women it does provide a low-outlay way to develop sales skills. (I'm told that a good saleswoman can generate a genuine, if fleeting, desire for the products; that's in addition to the social pressure and the "free" gifts.) Of course for some people it's a reason to get out and build a wider acquaintance. Or better yet, a means to get revenge on friends who always stick you with the drinks bill.
British 70s thing ... All lurid oranges and greens.
That's a lovely picture. I imagine a lot of homes still have shelves full of lurid plastics. Probably missing lids too.
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