Hang on... was Tupperware a pyramid scheme?
6/29/202646 min
Tupperware is one of those words so common we forgot it's a brand. It's also one of the great untold business stories, with a pioneer who was deliberately erased from view.
Did she design a pyramid scheme? Not really.
There's more to it than that.
This is the story of Brownie Wise... and what it costs to build something you don't own.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsChris Kohler· Host0:00
This is one of those stories that's hiding in plain sight. Tupperware is such a boring [laughs] part of day-to-day life now, but it used to be weirdly important and have this strange status attached to it, and it helped change the economy in a couple of really important ways. It helped give people, mostly women, all over the world, some financial independence at a time when they really didn't have many options to earn money on their own schedule and using their own networks. That's good. It also helped grow something called the multi-level marketing system, or MLM, which has some problems, to put it lightly, and we're gonna talk about that whole mess today. But as usual, I'm getting ahead of myself. Hello, Rob.
Rob· Host0:43
Hello. Good morning.
Chris Kohler· Host0:44
Good morning. Good to be with you. We're talking about, uh, Tupperware- Mm ... which is one of those words I think that covers a whole world of items.
Rob· Host0:53
It does. It does. I've brought some in today.
Chris Kohler· Host0:55
Is that what, is that what you call... Oh, here we go.
Rob· Host0:57
I've just brought some in today.
Chris Kohler· Host0:59
Oh.
Rob· Host0:59
The thing I noticed this morning when I went to the cupboard where the Tupperware drawer is, is that you can never find a match.
Chris Kohler· Host1:05
Never.
Rob· Host1:06
It's like, it's like lost socks. [laughs] There is some- I don't know where it is, but there is somewhere where all those missing socks and all those Tupperware lids are, and even though I live in a house with three people, one of them is a small child who doesn't use the Tupperware, they still disappear.
Chris Kohler· Host1:19
Yeah.
Rob· Host1:20
It's just- It goes into the dishwasher and it somehow falls into a vortex behind it.
Chris Kohler· Host1:24
Here's the thing, we've just been talking about it and we keep saying the same word, which is Tupperware.
Rob· Host1:29
Yes.
Chris Kohler· Host1:29
Can