The Queen of Tupperware

This message comes from Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. Alright. Alright. Alright. Time for my nightly ritual. It's the end of the day, and I'm doing what I do every night, putting away the leftover food from dinner so I can repurpose it for my son's lunch the next day. Chickpeas. Peas. Standing in front of my Tupperware drawer, which is basically a repurposed shoe rack in my kitchen closet. Problem is, you know, living in an apartment, I wouldn't mind having, like, an entire closet full of Tupperware, but that's oh, boy. That's not what I have. I'm playing the game of finding the right lid for the right Tupperware. We've all been there. Right? It's fair to say that as a young mom, Tupperware is a big part of my life. I'm out here saving 10 peas and half a carrot because, you know what that is? Tomorrow's snack. But if I'm honest, Tupperware has been a key constant my whole life. Extra pretzels, but the bag broke, throw it in some Tupperware. You know, we don't want it getting stale. Dinner at my in law's house, I'm coming home with Tupperware. Chances are you too have used Tupperware at some point in your life. It's a part of our daily lives, and it's so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget that Tupperware, which has come to mean all kinds of food storage, is actually an iconic American brand. And when it first hit the market in the mid twentieth century, Tupperware revolutionized American kitchens. This is Tupperware, the airtight plastic containers that keep good foods fresher longer. You can freeze it, stack it, any which way. So salads keep there, and gelatin desserts keep there. Tupperware came onto the scene after World War two, right when many American women were leaving wartime factory jobs to stay home as wives and mothers. More and more modern kitchens had electric stoves and refrigerators, and the airtight Tupperware bowl became a big hit. And for decades, until the 1980s, when Tupperware's patented lid expired, it was the only game in town, a product marketed to and sold by women. But lately, it's been in the news for another reason. The iconic seller of storage containers and kitchenware had tipped into bankruptcy under a mountain of debt. In 2024, Tupperware filed for bankruptcy. And here's Alina Seljuq has more. Over the years, the company's debts became nearly double its assets. Meet Alina Seljuq, one of NPR's business correspondents. Hello. Hello, ThruLine listeners. So, Alina, you covered that Tupperware bankruptcy story, and, normally, you would just move on. But you reached out to us because you found out there was more to the Tupperware story that doesn't get talked about much. Yes. And it's more of a who. …