The Party Is Over - Is the UK turning away from the USA?

In today's The Telegraph, a conservative British, I've found an article, which might be more alarming than it looks like at the first glance (remember: it's not a tabloid paper! - Since you have to register, I've copied and pasted the article here):

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The party's over for Tupperware after 40 years
By Becky Barrow
(Filed: 24/01/2003)


The fate of the Tupperware party has been sealed. Forty years after the ubiquitous plastic container first arrived on these shores, its American owners have called it a day.

Tupperware's 1,700 British staff, who demonstrate products such as the Wonderlier bowl at parties around the country, were told on Wednesday that the fun will stop in March.

While Tupperware parties will continue around the world from Argentina to Japan, a company spokesman said that the British parties are being closed down.

Jane Garrard, a vice-president of Tupperware, which claims to hold a party every two seconds somewhere in the world, said: "As it is currently structured, the parties do not seem to appeal to the British consumer."

The company is planning to sell its products through more conventional means in Britain. She said: "We believe there's still a very strong demand for our product, it's really just the manner of distribution."

The end of the Tupperware party, an icon of suburban living that used to be a regular fixture for British housewives, means that similar parties organised by Ann Summers will be one of the few remaining examples of this type of selling.

About 4,000 Ann Summers women-only parties take place each week in this country, selling anything from lingerie to edible body paints and sex toys.

Val Daley, who has been a Tupperware distributor for more than 20 years, described the decision as "very sad." She told BBC Radio 5 Live: "From my point of view, we have very loyal customers and hostesses that I had for a long, long time. I love the products and the business. It is such a lot of fun."

Tupperware parties started in America in 1948 inspired by Brownie Wise, a single mother from Detroit, and her mother, Rose, who organised "hostess parties" to sell anything from "ketchup pumps" to "ashtrays with a brain".

Earl Tupper, who founded the eponymous company in 1946, found that shop sales of his products were not going well and, five years later, switched entirely to the mother and daughter party scheme.

Brownie Wise was the first woman to appear on the front cover of the magazine Business Week.

Organisers of the parties are encouraged to think up themes for each gathering, with suggestions such as "Get more from your microwave" and "Gifts that keep on giving".

Listed on the New York stock exchange, Tupperware has cult status among some of its users for its seemingly endless range of products.

It also inspires devotion among its workers. Lisa Williams, a unit manager, said: "Mum physically dragged me to a Tupperware party, booked my own demonstration for me and that was the beginning of my Tupperware story.

"The products inspired me, demonstrating gave me back much of the confidence I had lost and my husband had back the career-orientated woman that he had first met."

It has inspired a book, Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America by Alison J Clarke, and its own language: a Tupperware "burp" involves releasing air from a food storage container to make it airtight.

There are no plans to shut down the parties in any of the other 100 countries where they take place. More than one million people work for Tupperware's sales force.

In America, more than 85 per cent of sales still come from the parties, but not in Britain.

"We wish that we knew the magic answer. Clearly, the way that we had the parties structured was not working," said a Tupperware spokesman. >>

Telegraph