Tupperware files for bankruptcy as its colorful containers lose relevance | Hacker News Reader

Tupperware files for bankruptcy as its colorful containers lose relevance

reuters.com

44 pointsivewonyoung78 comments

Just 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.

People are hopefully just avoiding plastic containers.

Yes - 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.

We 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...

We 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.

Interesting, we haven't had any issues with the plastic containers warping in the dishwasher, and I'm firmly of the opinion that we only have things that can go in the dishwasher. However, we only put them on the top (glasses) rack, with the rare exception.

As far as discoloration, that seems to largely be an issue caused by using the storage containers in the microwave, 3-4 years ago we stopped doing that to reduce the chemical leaching from plastic into food (which seems to be much higher at higher temps).

Agreed that some people will have no issue with breakage, but in our family that was a serious problem. We probably broke half the containers in 2 years, and as I understand it, broken glass isn't recyclable. So, I guess the plus is that it's a more stable chemical compound in the landfill, but it's still going to the landfill. So it becomes a question of: Glass in landfill or plastic that we can reuse longer.

> broken glass isn't recyclable

Super curious as to why that might be the case. Isn't breaking glass the first part of recycling? Perhaps it's a safety issue?

My recycling is picked up by a truck with an arm. It goes high up and is dumped into the truck and you can hear the glass breaking as it falls. Maybe it's different elsewhere but I can't imagine mine gives a hoot if it's pre-broken or not.

I've wondered about whether the handling of the recycling container ends up with significant amounts of broken glass. According to this page (echoed on other pages) you are on the right track with the safety issue, but also they aren't equipped to separate the glass fragments from other recycling.

https://recyclecoach.com/blog/is-broken-glass-recyclable/

I guess in France (and I've seen this pretty much everywhere in Europe) the glass go into a green bin with a protective thingie at the top, falls down and shatters - so broken glass isn't for sure an issue here.

In Los Angeles and Phoenix glass goes into the recycling bin, together with aluminum cans, plastic bottles etc. Here the idea is that you throw it into recycling and that it gets sorted at the recycling facility. We are told not to crush cans before throwing them in recycling as crushing them makes it harder to separate them.

It's very different from when I lived in Belgium. Glass went into glass recycling, plastic in a blue bag (and they checked, a LOT), refuse in the grey bin, and there are battery recycling stations EVERYWHERE.

And the way they encourage you to sort your trash in Belgium is by weighing your trash (container full - container empty = weight of trash), and you pay for that. So cheating and throwing your glass into your refuse container will end up costing you.

Both solutions are OK, we have the in between one where people are expected to do their duty. Which they do or not.

The recycling was solicited a few years ago with just 3 bins: green for glass, yellow for paper, plastic, metal and a few other things and brown for generic trash

Pyrex (borosilicate) glass shouldn't be mixed with normal glass.

The downvotes here are silly.

Glass containers are conceptually great. Many of the actual designs are quite bad. Little glass chips in the drawer are not at all rare.

Maybe someone should try to design a dishwasher safe container that is silicone on the outside and glass on the inside. Silicon compounds can adhere covalently to glass, so this should be possible.

Interesting idea. Or maybe it could just be made out of a harder silicone?

Or maybe stainless steel? Though I guess both of those would have an additional problem: You can't see what's in them. In our family, something going into an opaque container in the fridge is nearly guaranteed to end up getting thrown away, though in particular that's a problem for ingredients (rather than prepared foods): if I can't see the chopped onions or half can of crushed tomatoes, I'm gonna forget to use them.

Pretty sure silicone will release compounds into the air when microwaving just like plastic does.

Silicone is noteworthy for being stable at quite high temperatures. If you’re worried about plastics offgassing in a microwave, take a look at what the inside of your microwave is made from.

Another glass convert here. Being able to go straight from fridge to oven/microwave to dishwasher without worrying about warping or microplastics leeching is the big sell. Easier to clean by hand, no sticking or staining. Plus they look nice enough even serve food in.

I have switched to (cup-style) deli containers for 90% of food storage now. They are cheap, stack great, hold up well if you drop them, and easy to wash and store.

Post-covid, take out containers have replaced most my non-glass food storage options. You order a ~$9~ $14 pad thai and they are just giving you tupperware now.

I’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.

An MLM that pumps out plastic is definitely something the world can do without.

Well, 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 ;)

It seems that our system consistently punishes sustainability and quality.

I still use Tupperware that is 40+ years old

There are ways to fix this, from waste disposal fees to dinnerware subscription services[1].

[1]: https://placamp.com/en/topic/topic_1821/

I'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.

Like 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.

Glasslock 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-saf...

lid organizer: https://theyamazakihome.com/products/tower-dish-storage-rack...

From 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!

Given 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

Give 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.

I'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.

Many Brilliance items are fully plastic, as a general caution to people interested in them. Check the label.

Yeah, Brilliance is a broad product line, I should have probably specified their glassware.

> air-tight

I gave up on that requirement and now use Wick 742s and 743s without the gasket or clips. Super simple, all glass lid. I use them 95% of the time. If I didn't work from home these would probably not work, but I love using them.

Because it took me a bit of confused hunting to figure out:

This probably got autocorrected away from "weck": https://weckjars.com/

It's not storage, but I've been very happy with my Vinglacé as an insulated coffee container: https://vinglace.com/

It's what I pretty much always wanted but could never find: glass-lined, insulated, and drop-resistant (not by a lot, but much better than e.g. a Bodum double-walled glass mug).

The lids are unfortunately just "acceptable", but I'm more than happy with the product as a whole and that doesn't change it.

A bit of a tangent, but there's a pretty good RiffTrax about Tupperware: [0]

[0] https://www.rifftrax.com/wonderful-world-of-tupperware

> 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?

My guess would be: Private Equity

This 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.

What’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?

I 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.

It 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/

The 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.

Not 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.

Mine are from leftovers I brought home and forgot to return wink

[dupe]

Some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41576276

Surprised; then I think When was the last time I used a Tupperware container? I can't remember.

I don't buy Tupperware so much as end up with other people's Tupperware when they give me food.

You’re supposed to give those back…

Maybe 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.

I 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.

Tupperware 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.

Feels like there are similar brands that have still flourished, mostly thinking of Pampered Chef?

LPT: 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.

Alternatively, 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.

Yes 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://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41576276

While we are on the subject, does anyone know of a super high quality repeatedly microwave-able line of LIGHT and sturdy storageware?

Of course. Because why pay for tupperware when chinese takeout gives you more reusable plastic containers than you could ever use?

You 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.

Tupperware 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.

> Tupperware came in a wide variety of convenient, space-efficient shapes and sizes. Maybe modern Chinese takeout also does?

https://a.co/d/hGJWdrH

I 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.

Well, I don’t buy anything plastic anymore when it comes to food storage.

Microplastics, PFAS and whatnot.. I solely use glass or metal now.

My mom still has the tupperware I grew up with in the 80s. I assume it's 100% BPA

Well, 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!

Who needs Tupperware when Gen Z doesn't know how to cook at home, all food comes in a disposable container via Uber Eats.

Are 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.

You 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.

Contributing factor for sure

This is definitely relevant but I'd say a lot of Millennials can't cook either. I live with this cohort lol.

Outside of the 1%, or maybe 10%, is "just live on Uber Eats food" a long-term financial option for any generation?

The same group wants their student loans nullified; I wouldn't say they are experts in long-term financial planning. YOLO

Anecdotally, 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.

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