Tupperware ladies

Plastic bowl demonstrators

Tupperware ladies are women who sell Tupperware plastic food containers through home parties, a direct-sales model pioneered in the 1950s.

The term evokes a particular mid-century suburban domesticity—housewives gathering in living rooms for product demonstrations.

By extension, it sometimes describes any direct-sales representatives working similar party-plan schemes: My aunt was a Tupperware lady for years.

Related

plastic containers · food storage · homemaking · housewares · parties · suburban lifestyle · pink-collar · demonstration · social gatherings · direct sales · catalog sales · party planning · kitchen table · stay-at-home mom · home-based business · network marketing · plasticware · sealable

Opposites
sales model

Tupperware ladiese-commerce platforms

Digital retail sales systems

Amazon · vending machines · online shopping · wholesale distributors

gender and work culture

Tupperware ladiescorporate executives

Senior company leadership

Mad Men · company men · traveling salesmen · suits · industrial workers

commercial authenticity

Tupperware ladiesMadison Avenue

Advertising industry synecdoche

telemarketers · cold callers · automated checkout

Family

Tupperware, ladies, ware, wares, ladylike, ladyship

Familiarity
Top 500,000
Profile
Mostly American · Concrete · Everyday, not technical · Rated G