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Tupperware files for bankruptcy as its colorful containers lose relevance
- dtagames 2y agoAn MLM that pumps out plastic is definitely something the world can do without.
- JoeAltmaier 2y agoSurprised; then I think When was the last time I used a Tupperware container? I can't remember.
- racl101 2y agoI don't buy Tupperware so much as end up with other people's Tupperware when they give me food.
- dumbo-octopus 2y agoYou’re supposed to give those back…
- seneca 2y agoMaybe baseless, but I try my best to avoid having food touch plastics, especially when hot. Tupperware is not an option, and feels like a relic of a bygone era.
- mikestew 2y agoI’ve still got Tupperware containers from when my ex-wife sold the stuff, and I’ve been married to my current wife for 30 years. It’s good stuff, or at least used to be. But the reason I’m using 30 year old Tupperware is because I’m not going to go to Tupperware parties. I’ve often wondered if their sales and marketing hindered them, or if it is what made it possible for them to stay in business at all.
- Chihuahua0633 2y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41576276 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41576276
- jabroni_salad 2y agoJust spitballing, but I wonder if switching to traditional retail actually hurt them. I checked them out at target and did not think they were much better than the other stuff on the shelf. Years of mystique built up by the ladies in my extended family evaporated by a 45 second interaction. Personally I prefer glass anyways, since I can avoid all the problems plastic may have and the spaghetti wont stain it.
- dyauspitr 2y agoPeople are hopefully just avoiding plastic containers.
- TimTheTinker 2y agoYes - They should pivoted into other more environmentally friendly (and less potentially toxic) materials. They could have gotten ahead of this with some foresight. Always at least have some budget for R&D, no matter how successful you are.
- linsomniac 2y agoWe tried switching from plastic to glass a few years ago and while I liked the idea, the execution was terrible. The biggest issue was simply storage efficiency. They don't nest nearly as well as the plastic containers, so our drawer was always a disaster and overflowing. The lids of the ones we got all cracked fairly quickly, so I bought some silicone replacements which are great but super expensive. Also, our family isn't careful enough for glass containers, we had a lot of breakage. IMHO you can't beat those cheap plastic clear containers with blue lids: They nest really well, you can see into them, they last a long time... They're sold under a number of brands: ZipLock, Glad...
- hmmm-i-wonder 2y agoWe switched to glass and never looked back. We had the space to store them without issues. Previously we had started hand-washing the plastic Tupperware/Ziplock containers because of warping in the dishwasher. They also stained and discoloured and no matter how much cleaning hand or machine wouldn't go back to looking clean. We still hand-wash the plastic lids but the glass goes into the dishwasher. Now we have no more warped lids or containers. The containers are microwave safe. We also don't have breakage issues we haven't broken one in 5+ years. To each their own I guess. My glass/steel dishes are vastly outlasting any plastic ones I've ever owned and are more enjoyable to use.
- BugsJustFindMe 2y agoOf course. Because why pay for tupperware when chinese takeout gives you more reusable plastic containers than you could ever use?
- dmichulke 2y agoYou could go there with your current reusable plastic container and ask them to fill it. Never tried it myself though. Might even be a way to combat shrinkflation.
- bell-cot 2y agoTupperware came in a wide variety of convenient, space-efficient shapes and sizes. Maybe modern Chinese takeout also does? My experience is extremely limited. Back in the day, extremely few people were regular consumers of any take-out which might come with free could-be-reused containers. Vs. these days, not filling the landfills and oceans with cheap plastic take-out containers is a thing for quite a few people.
- BugsJustFindMe 2y ago> Tupperware came in a wide variety of convenient, space-efficient shapes and sizes. Maybe modern Chinese takeout also does? https://a.co/d/hGJWdrH https://a.co/d/hGJWdrH
- bunderbunder 2y agoI keep wishing I could find a chinese restaurant near me that still uses oyster pails for everything, and solves the leakage issue by just not gooping up their food with so much sugar syrup that it becomes a problem in the first place. But I suppose people around here gotta have their General Tso's.
- wannacboatmovie 2y agoWho needs Tupperware when Gen Z doesn't know how to cook at home, all food comes in a disposable container via Uber Eats.
- CoastalCoder 2y agoAre you sure this is a widespread trend? I haven't noticed it. I'd think it's heavily dependent on the state of the economy.
- wannacboatmovie 2y agoYou would think with the economy doing poorly, more people would learn how to cook, but most I know under 30 can barely handle reheating a frozen pizza.
- romanobro56 2y agoContributing factor for sure
- racl101 2y agoThis is definitely relevant but I'd say a lot of Millennials can't cook either. I live with this cohort lol.
- bell-cot 2y agoOutside of the 1%, or maybe 10%, is "just live on Uber Eats food" a long-term financial option for any generation?
- wannacboatmovie 2y agoThe same group wants their student loans nullified; I wouldn't say they are experts in long-term financial planning. YOLO
- quesera 2y agoAnecdotally, only the people I know who can least afford it, use Uber Eats regularly. I know because they tell me so. Directionality of causation is a fair question, but likely inadvisable to raise.
- CoastalCoder 2y agoA bit of a tangent, but there's a pretty good RiffTrax about Tupperware: [0] [0] https://www.rifftrax.com/wonderful-world-of-tupperware https://www.rifftrax.com/wonderful-world-of-tupperware
- davio 2y agoMy mom still has the tupperware I grew up with in the 80s. I assume it's 100% BPA
- AdmiralAsshat 2y agoI never saw the appeal of Tupperware, to be honest. Pyrex seemed like the far superior storage option for nearly all use cases. Maybe it was a housewife thing.
- pupppet 2y agoTupperware should have died with the invention of the microwave. You inevitably want to heat things up in the microwave and grease burns will forever stain the material.
- aantix 2y agoFeels like there are similar brands that have still flourished, mostly thinking of Pampered Chef?
- linsomniac 2y agoLPT: Always transfer the food you're microwaving from the storage container to a dish. That prevents the problems you mention, plus it helps with reasonable portion sizes.
- hmmm-i-wonder 2y agoAlternatively, when storing food, portion it into glass containers that can quickly be microwaved. That's our approach, makes lunches both when working at home and in office easy and we're more likely to actually eat/finish the leftovers before they go bad.
- WaitWaitWha 2y agoYes PYREX but not pyrex [0]. In my experience pyrex is significantly lower quality and of course material. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex
- sunaookami 2y agoWell, the quality of them is so high that you don't need to buy new ones every few years so of course they are bankrupt ;)
- guerrilla 2y agoIt seems that our system consistently punishes sustainability and quality.
- memcg 2y agoI still use Tupperware that is 40+ years old
- thih9 2y agoThere are ways to fix this, from waste disposal fees to dinnerware subscription services[1]. [1]: https://placamp.com/en/topic/topic_1821/ https://placamp.com/en/topic/topic_1821/
- shortstuffsushi 2y agoI'm hoping the latter half of that was a joke, but please, let's not further extend the awful trend of pushing every part of life being a subscription. I understand the argument as a way to sustain the business, but I don't think this is the right way.
- thih9 2y agoLike it or not, it is currently one of the alternatives. Wasteful, expensive, rented - pick one. If it helps, I also like the first half of the grandparent comment more.
- insane_dreamer 2y ago> Tupperware listed $500 million-$1 billion in estimated assets and $1 billion-$10 billion in estimated liabilities How in the world do you accumulate $1B to $10B in debt when you make plastic containers?
- linsomniac 2y agoMy guess would be: Private Equity
- pclmulqdq 2y agoThis level of debt is easy to get: $500 million financing a manufacturing facility plus floating $1 billion of accounts payable for materials. Nominally, if you have $1 billion of parables, you probably have at least $2 billion of receivables, though.
- initplus 2y agoWhat’s crazy is the range on the liability estimate. Maybe there is a good reason for it. But 1b-10b is an absolutely massive window?
- ChrisArchitect 2y ago[dupe] Some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41576276 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41576276
- wozniacki 2y agoWhile we are on the subject, does anyone know of a super high quality repeatedly microwave-able line of LIGHT and sturdy storageware?
- jedberg 2y agoNot entirely surprising. I have a whole cabinet full of Tupperware but I've never bought a single one. They were all given to me from mom and dad when I went to college (in the 90s) out of their collection (which they still have and bought in the 70s and 80s). Those things last forever. But also we've switched to using mostly glass because you can safely heat them in the microwave without switching to a plate first.
- gtirloni 2y agoMine are from leftovers I brought home and forgot to return wink
- steelframe 2y agoGiven the growing health concerns we've been reading [0] relating to food contact chemicals we've thrown away all plastic food containers in our house and replaced them with either glass or stainless steel. I get the feeling we're not the only ones who have been doing that over the past several years. [0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-024-00718-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-024-00718-2
- Spivak 2y agoGive me all the brands. I've been looking for air-tight glass food storage containers for years simply because I hate the feeling of plastic. Cambro but glass would be my endgame.
- etrautmann 2y ago+1
- natpalmer1776 2y agoI've had a great experience using Rubbermaid Brilliance, and every other Rubbermaid product I've purchased has been of exceptional quality for the price paid. Some of my less thrifty friends have raved about the quality of Caraway containers. Having seen and held both, Caraway is nice due to the lack of 'moving parts' and will likely last longer than my Rubbermaid, but at 4x the cost I couldn't justify the purchase. Important to note, because I made this mistake and upset my wife in the process: THE LIDS ARE NOT MICROWAVE SAFE! This holds true across three different brands of glass storage containers I've seen.
- Groxx 2y agoMany Brilliance items are fully plastic, as a general caution to people interested in them. Check the label.
- natpalmer1776 2y agoYeah, Brilliance is a broad product line, I should have probably specified their glassware.
- jitl 2y agoGlasslock brand makes really good stacking glass containers that are oven safe. I find it’s much easier to clean oil out of them compared to plastic containers, it takes like 2 tours of duty storing mapo tofu to stain plastic pale orange forever, but the glass never stains. We have like 8x identical ones so they store super easy, and we keep the lids vertically in a plate holder. A++ would recommend to anyone who is bothered by a jumble of plastic containers and mismatched lids. 3.5 cups is good for most leftovers jobs (sometimes a little big, rarely 2x is too small) and is just right for a 2-person mini casserole job like making Mac n cheese. container: https://glasslockusa.com/product/ocrt-090-glasslock-oven-safe-rect-3-5-cups/ https://glasslockusa.com/product/ocrt-090-glasslock-oven-saf... lid organizer: https://theyamazakihome.com/products/tower-dish-storage-rack-large https://theyamazakihome.com/products/tower-dish-storage-rack...
- Groxx 2y agoFrom the pictures, they even have a dedicated nesting ridge, so they don't get stuck together? Damn. Someone's paying at least a modicum of attention, which is a heck of a lot better than [practically everyone else]. I will absolutely try these out, thank you!
- moi2388 2y agoWell, I don’t buy anything plastic anymore when it comes to food storage. Microplastics, PFAS and whatnot.. I solely use glass or metal now.
- nytesky 2y agoI wonder if it isn’t actually a switch to glass etc, but instead less home cooking and less leftovers. Many people get delivery or eat out several times a week, much more than prior generations. We are heavy user of plastic storage; glass is too bulky and the lids are terrible unless you update. We get nicer brands like Snapware when we can; it’s generally PP plastic which is pretty inert, and we never microwave the plastics, just use a glass bowl or plate. But we are heavy home cookers.
- nytesky 2y agoIt definitely seems pre pandemic Millenials were cooking less at home. And with meal kits you won’t have much leftovers. https://www.wellandgood.com/home-cooking-decline/ https://www.wellandgood.com/home-cooking-decline/
- kjkjadksj 2y agoThe takeout boxes are shit though so you are better off repackaging. A lot of people just use glass now. You can store curry in it without permanently staining your plastic tupperware with turmeric.
- mmh0000 2y agoWell, who could have imagined that selling greatly overpriced plastic boxes and using MLM resellers who just ooze "scamminess" while simultaneously not accepting all major credit cards would lead to failure? On a side note, Costco carries "Snapware" glass and plastic containers, which are fantastic!