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Planet Money from NPR.

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Hello and welcome to

0:35

Planet Money. I'm Jeff Guo.

0:37

And today I am joined

0:39

by Willa Paskin. Hey Willa.

0:41

Hi Jeff. Hi Planet Money.

0:43

Willa. You are the host of

0:46

the Dakota Ring podcast from

0:48

Slate. And you guys are

0:50

like... professional rabbit hole finders,

0:52

right? You guys are so

0:54

good at just finding these

0:56

things in the world that

0:58

we think we all understand,

1:00

but you're like, no, no,

1:02

no, we're taking you on

1:04

this whole improbable journey saga

1:06

that's delightful, but often kind

1:08

of weird, and we always

1:10

end up learning something new. Thank

1:12

you so much. That's very nice.

1:14

I do consider myself a professional

1:16

rabbit hole. What is that? Digger?

1:18

Binder digger. A professional rabbit? A

1:20

professional rabbit? Rabbit? Rabbit? Yeah, no. We

1:23

really like love to find things that

1:25

are sort of hiding in plain sight

1:27

and then go figure out why they've been

1:29

hiding in plain sight the whole

1:31

time. Yeah, my favorite is

1:33

when you guys decode something that...

1:36

I never thought needed decoding

1:38

like lawn ornaments or jalapenos. Not

1:40

as spicy as it used to

1:42

be, it turns out. But

1:45

there's one episode lately that

1:47

all of us here at

1:49

Planet Money cannot stop thinking

1:52

about and it is your

1:54

episode about Tupperware. Oh, talk

1:56

about something hiding in your

1:58

refrigerator right now. such an amazing and

2:01

interesting subject because it is really this

2:03

totally everyday object like we all have

2:05

yeah and it feels like it's always

2:07

existed and it feels like it's maybe

2:09

old-fashioned yeah but like in this story

2:11

is so much stuff that's just really

2:14

alive and still kicking and just really

2:16

still with us yeah I think

2:18

what's so interesting about the story

2:20

that you tell about Tupperware is

2:22

how it was so revolutionary in

2:24

so many ways, like not just

2:26

the product, but also the sales

2:28

strategy, and also it is a

2:31

story about class and gender and

2:33

told through this thing that we

2:35

all buy and don't give any

2:37

second thought to. Yeah, absolutely. So

2:40

will you take it away? Oh my

2:42

God, it's my honor. Today on the

2:44

show, The Tale of Tupperware. The storage

2:46

container is a stealthy star of the

2:49

modern home, but where did Tupperware come

2:51

from, and how did it wind up

2:53

taking over our lives? It's the

2:55

story of the product's success and

2:57

the company's demise. That's all coming

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up after the break. Support

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No contract, cancel any time.

4:30

That stamps.com slash. program. Seeing

4:39

people's neuroses and emotional lives play

4:41

out and the way that they

4:43

choose to spend time and money

4:45

is fascinating to me. Amanda is

4:48

always noticing things. And last year,

4:50

she became very curious about a

4:52

strange kind of video that's all

4:54

over the internet. It's time for

4:56

another drink fridge restock. It's been

4:58

a little over a month, so

5:01

we're gonna get it full again.

5:03

You just tell me what a

5:05

restocking video is. Restocking videos are

5:07

usually a few minutes long. They

5:09

are generally sort of a close-up

5:12

on a woman's hands, taking a

5:14

set of containers, usually out of a

5:16

refrigerator, out of a pantry, out of

5:18

a laundry room. And then those

5:20

hands start filling the containers with

5:23

stuff. food or cleaning products

5:25

stuffed and stacked and plunked

5:27

and crunched and peeled and chopped

5:29

and decanted. Just thing after thing

5:31

after thing being put inside of

5:34

all of these crystal clear containers.

5:36

The hands are disembodied. You can't

5:38

see who they belong to. And

5:40

the women rarely talk. They let

5:43

the containers speak for themselves. A

5:45

lot of people find the sound

5:47

of things getting sort of crunched

5:49

and plunked and put into these

5:52

containers. Very satisfying. And

5:54

then those containers are put back

5:56

in the pantry and the laundry

5:58

room wherever. And we're all stuck. up,

6:00

it looks so beautiful, nice

6:02

and full again. And where you

6:04

had disarray, you now have order.

6:06

Everything is abundant and

6:08

you have all of your choices

6:10

in front of you and walking

6:13

into your kitchen or your bathroom

6:15

or your laundry room is like

6:17

walking into a store of your

6:19

very own. Okay, I love this

6:21

drawer, I hope they love it too. How

6:23

popular are they? incredibly popular. There

6:26

are people online who make an

6:28

entire living out of making these

6:30

videos. It's very very easy to

6:32

find ones that have millions or

6:35

tens of millions of views. I

6:37

think that to watch something that

6:39

was like a little bit of

6:41

a mess go to clean and

6:43

pristine and organized and perfect is

6:45

satisfying for a lot of people.

6:47

This booming genre of video of

6:49

people basically pouring pasta into plastic

6:52

is fascinating all on its own.

6:54

But over the years, as

6:56

Amanda has seen more and

6:58

more of these videos, a

7:00

particular aspect of them started

7:03

to jump out to her. The

7:05

stars. The storage containers.

7:08

Plastic storage containers have

7:10

never been more popular.

7:12

They have never been more

7:14

culturally salient. Amanda's talking about

7:17

regular, plain, put your leftovers

7:19

in them containers. She has

7:21

some... I have some. I

7:23

dare say you have some.

7:25

They're easy to overlook because

7:27

the focus is usually on

7:30

what's inside of them. Everything

7:32

from last night's dinner to

7:34

yes, dried pasta and cute

7:36

tips and colored pencils. Still,

7:38

they have become an absolute

7:41

staple, not just of online

7:43

videos, but mainstream home decor.

7:45

Or as the headline of

7:47

a piece Amanda wrote for

7:49

The Atlantic puts it. Home

7:51

influencers will not rest until

7:53

everything has been put in

7:56

a clear plastic storage bin.

7:58

There are clear acrylics. containers

8:00

in virtually every size

8:03

and shape and scale.

8:05

They are incredibly widespread,

8:07

incredibly visible in culture,

8:09

incredibly visible online. These

8:11

containers have crept into

8:13

every corner of our lives, but

8:16

it turns out that as modern as

8:18

some of their uses are, this

8:20

is not the first time we

8:22

have lost it over an empty

8:24

plastic box. They just used to

8:26

go by another name. We're all still

8:28

living in the world that Tupperware built,

8:31

and we probably will be for quite

8:33

some time. Tupperware is now an old

8:35

and troubled company, but for years it

8:37

was a thriving one. And it owes

8:39

much of that success to an archetype

8:41

we tend to think of as very

8:44

contemporary. Whether or not today's influencers

8:46

realize it, they are taking part

8:48

in a long tradition of women

8:50

using their charisma to ignite the

8:52

imaginations of women around them. And

8:54

the proto-influencer who started

8:56

that tradition by turning

8:59

Tupperware into a household name

9:01

was. Hello, this is Brownie. You

9:03

know, Brownie was a minimally educated

9:06

woman from South Georgia. Bob Keeling

9:08

is a historian and the author

9:10

of Tupperware Unsealed. Her marriage fell

9:13

apart not long after her son was

9:15

born. So it was up to her

9:17

to make money to raise him. Brownie

9:19

was working as a secretary in

9:21

the suburbs of Detroit, making ends

9:23

meet. when one day, Opportunity called.

9:26

Brownie has a guy for Stanley

9:28

Home Products who knocks on her

9:30

door and selling these utilitarian home

9:33

cleaning products, kind of dowdy, brushes,

9:35

brooms, you know, different things you

9:37

can use around the house, and

9:39

he gives this very fumbling

9:42

demonstration of all the products, and she

9:44

says, oh my God, I could do

9:46

better than that. So Brownie started

9:48

selling Stanley Home products herself.

9:50

Sometimes we overlook the prospects

9:53

closest to home, you know.

9:55

From the start, she had

9:57

the thing good sales people

9:59

have. where even when they're selling

10:01

you something, it doesn't feel like

10:04

they're just trying to sell you

10:06

something. She seemed authentic. She was

10:08

warm and fun. And unlike all

10:10

those male traveling salesmen, she could

10:12

recommend products to other women as

10:15

a peer. That is just such

10:17

a meaningfully different sales pitch than

10:19

going to a store and buying something off

10:21

a shelf. Soon she was selling a

10:23

lot of Stanley, which by the

10:25

way is not the same company

10:28

that makes the current very popular big

10:30

cup. And she wanted to sell

10:32

even more. But she hit a

10:34

wall, or rather the man who ran

10:36

the company. She wanted to move up

10:38

in the world, and she told him

10:40

I'd really like to get

10:42

into management. And he said,

10:45

honey, management's no place for a

10:47

woman. And so Brownie decided she was

10:49

going to find something else to sell.

10:51

A colleague had just pointed out

10:53

a new product available in department stores.

10:56

A product created by a chemist

10:58

named Earl Tupper. Earl Tupper was a

11:00

Spartan New Englander. He was a dyed-in-the-wool

11:02

inventor who had said, I'm going to

11:04

be a millionaire by the time I'm

11:06

30. Long before he created his namesake

11:09

product, Earl was constantly jotting

11:11

down ideas and sketches in

11:13

a notebook, like for a

11:15

fish-powered-powered-powered poweredored boat. and for

11:17

pants that wouldn't lose their

11:19

crease. When the Great Depression

11:21

hit, he took a job

11:24

to support his family in

11:26

a plastics factory in Massachusetts.

11:28

By the 1940s, he had

11:30

his own plastics manufacturing company.

11:32

And when World War II

11:34

ended, the multinational chemical company

11:36

DuPont reached out and asked

11:39

if Tupper could figure out what

11:41

to do with this material they

11:43

developed. A hard brown slag product,

11:45

they called polyethylene. It was like

11:48

a byproduct of what the

11:50

military would use for helmets,

11:52

a product no one else

11:55

would consider even using. Earl

11:57

started experimenting with polyethylene.

12:00

mixing it, processing it,

12:02

refining it, and eventually he

12:04

turned it into something brand

12:06

new. He was able to make

12:09

it more malleable and softer and

12:11

he could even add certain dye

12:13

colors to it to make it

12:15

more attractive. Earl named this

12:17

promising new material Polly Teeth

12:20

and set out to find

12:22

a use for it. One

12:24

day Earl saw a paint

12:26

can with its resealable lid.

12:28

and he realized something like

12:30

that would be really useful

12:32

for food. At the time,

12:34

home food storage was very

12:36

haphazard. 1940s housewives would improvise,

12:38

sometimes putting leftovers in a

12:40

bowl and covering them with

12:42

a shower cap. Earl saw

12:44

an opening for something better.

12:46

And so using his polyt

12:48

material, he set about creating

12:51

a new kind of storage

12:53

container, unbreakable, attractive, and with

12:55

an airtight, resealable lid. He

12:58

named the resulting product

13:00

Tupperware, and by 1946,

13:02

he was ready to

13:04

start placing his first

13:06

products, including the pastel-colored

13:08

Wonderable in department stores,

13:11

where they promptly just... sat

13:13

on the shelf. It was not doing well.

13:15

People didn't really know what to

13:17

do with it. They have to be told. Somebody

13:19

has to identify the problem in

13:21

their lives for them and then

13:24

explain how our product fixes that

13:26

problem. And that was the case

13:28

with Tupperware. When Brownie Wise saw Tupperware,

13:30

she immediately knew how to explain

13:32

it to her customers, how to

13:35

make it comprehensible,

13:37

and also desirable. She started

13:39

bringing it into women's homes

13:41

and demonstrating its effectiveness in

13:43

ways that would blow their

13:45

minds. She would take the wonder bowl,

13:47

she'd fill it up with grape juice, seal

13:49

it, and throw it across the room in

13:51

somebody's family room, and they'd be

13:54

aghast, but it wouldn't spill a

13:56

drip. And then Brownie would explain how to

13:58

seal that very same one. You burp

14:00

it just like a baby. That

14:02

was one of the things Brownie

14:05

would say to her prospective customers.

14:07

You burp a tupperware just before

14:09

sealing it completely, burp pressing down

14:12

on the center of the lid

14:14

while holding up one of the

14:16

corners, forcing a little burp of

14:19

air out and ostensibly locking in

14:21

freshness. I don't know if it's

14:23

necessary, but this was like a

14:26

thing that women were taught to

14:28

do when they got their first

14:30

Tupperware. It was like after a

14:33

meal you burp your baby, after

14:35

a meal you burp your Tupperware.

14:37

It is a small act of

14:40

care toward your leftovers. This Turner

14:42

phrase was beyond canny. Brownie knew

14:44

her audience, wives and mothers in

14:47

the post-war era who could afford

14:49

to spend a little more, but

14:51

felt more virtuous doing so when

14:53

the exciting new product they were

14:56

splurging on promised it was also

14:58

the latest way to take care

15:00

of their families. Soon Brownie was

15:03

selling $2 million worth of Tupperware

15:05

in today's money. She wasn't even

15:07

officially affiliated with the company. But

15:10

when Tupperware saw her sales figures,

15:12

that changed. They offered her distribution

15:14

rights for the entire state of

15:17

Florida. It's about 15 seconds. They

15:19

say, oh, it's warm down there.

15:21

Yeah, we'll go. Brownie quickly set

15:24

up a shop in Fort Lauderdale

15:26

called patio parties. Not only was

15:28

she selling Tupperware herself, but she

15:31

was also recruiting other women, teaching

15:33

them her winning sales pitches and

15:35

then sending them off to sell

15:38

Tupperware too. But no one was

15:40

just knocking on doors. Brownie had

15:42

developed a more compelling method, one

15:45

she'd first learned about from her

15:47

old company Stanley, and then honed

15:49

and improved. She had the Tupperware

15:51

party. Now let's go to a

15:54

little town in New Jersey where

15:56

things are really popping. Yes, there's

15:58

a party going on at Mrs.

16:01

Betty Martin's house. It's a Tupperware

16:03

party, and it's really fun. You

16:05

get somebody... who would be willing

16:08

to host the party. It turns

16:10

into a social gathering. The girls

16:12

get together and meet their old

16:15

friends and make some new ones.

16:17

Women would come over and have

16:19

hors d'oeuvres and maybe cocktails and

16:22

chat and gossip. And they would

16:24

give their demonstration. Watch her show

16:26

the way to use Tupperware's patentancy.

16:29

See? A Tupperware party was such

16:31

a good time, it could obscure

16:33

that it was also, for at

16:36

least the women doing the demonstrations

16:38

work. In the late 40s and

16:40

early 50s, selling Tupperware, something that

16:43

happened almost entirely in the female

16:45

sphere, was a socially sanctioned way

16:47

for women to bring in money.

16:50

to be a part of the

16:52

working world, the one in which

16:54

business degrees and special training were

16:56

less valuable than a wide social

16:59

circle, an eye for presentation, and

17:01

the personal experience charm and authority

17:03

to recommend a product. Tupperware parties

17:06

sort of pioneered this concept of

17:08

like women selling two women. It

17:10

is a completely different selling experience

17:13

to hear somebody say, oh, you've

17:15

got to try these. They're so

17:17

cute. They're so useful. I can

17:20

order you a set if you're

17:22

interested. This kind of direct sales

17:24

method, which is now everywhere and

17:27

not always for the good. worked

17:29

incredibly well. In 1951, Tupperware's owner,

17:31

Earl Tupper, arranged to meet with

17:34

Brownie face-to-face for the first time.

17:36

Soon after, he decided that her

17:38

sales strategy, the Tupperware party, would

17:41

be Tupperware's only sales strategy. Goodbye

17:43

department stores, goodbye any stores at

17:45

all. He also

17:47

moved Tupper headquarters down to Kasimi,

17:50

Florida, the state in which Brownie

17:52

was already located and gave her

17:54

a promotion. He told her, you

17:57

know, when you talk, people listen

17:59

and... He made her the head

18:01

of sales for the brand new

18:04

home party division that he created

18:06

at her encouragement to sell the

18:08

product exclusively through home parties. The

18:11

national scaling of these home parties

18:13

changed everything for Tupperware. This is

18:15

Tupperware. It became an it product,

18:18

a modern marvel that was the

18:20

must-have item of the day. Something

18:22

I initially anyway. found a little

18:25

hard to understand. It's kind of

18:27

hard for me to wrap my

18:29

head around the status symbolness of

18:31

Tupperware because it's pedestrian and plastic

18:34

and stores food. Like it is

18:36

just this plastic container, you know,

18:38

like what made it so revered.

18:41

Humans love to take objects and

18:43

imbue them with meaning and sometimes

18:45

it doesn't really matter what the

18:48

object is. If it's in the

18:50

right place at the right time,

18:52

it can be an incredibly meaningful

18:55

thing. And that is what you

18:57

got with Tupperware. And I think

18:59

it makes a lot of sense

19:02

if you think about how Tupperware

19:04

spread. You couldn't just go into

19:06

a store and if you had

19:09

the money, you could buy it.

19:11

You had to be invited to

19:13

a Tupperware party. You had to

19:16

have social ties to people who

19:18

could get it for you. You

19:20

had to have enough money to

19:22

actually buy it. up on the

19:25

latest things, and also that you

19:27

were a fastidious and reasonable steward

19:29

of your family's domestic life. Topor

19:32

had the release model cache of

19:34

a streetwear brand and the trendiness

19:36

of, yes, a Stanley Cup, all

19:39

while making wives and mothers feel

19:41

good about how they were being

19:43

wives and mothers. And so it

19:46

became a behemoth. Tupperware amassed 20,000

19:48

dealers across the country, women who

19:50

worship Brownie as a sales god,

19:53

an aspirational lifestyle guru, and who

19:55

flogged enough Tupperware for the company

19:57

soon reached $25 million in retail

20:00

sales. Almost $300 million in today's

20:02

money. I mean, Earl Tupper is

20:04

over the moon. He's finally

20:06

found somebody to burk his

20:08

baby. Soon, Brownie, with her incredible

20:11

story, became the face of the

20:13

brand. Harold it as a single

20:15

mom revealed to be a sales

20:18

genius, now leading an army of

20:20

saleswoman. I hadn't realized there were

20:23

so many people in the Tupperware

20:25

family. And to think, there are

20:27

more than 10,000 others who could

20:30

not be here. Brownie was the

20:32

communicator. Brownie was the motivator. Brownie

20:34

loved to get out among the

20:37

public and have her picture taken.

20:39

And so Brownie started becoming famous

20:41

as the Tupperware lady. Brownie

20:43

went on talk shows and did

20:46

interviews for countless magazines. She became

20:48

the very first woman to appear

20:50

on the cover of Business Week.

20:53

She wrote an entire memoir slash

20:55

business manual and the press often

20:57

credited her with the success of

21:00

Tupperware. Nominally Earl Tupper is

21:02

the president of the

21:04

company, but she's the

21:06

genius behind this. It

21:08

was good advertising. It

21:10

spread the message. But

21:12

ultimately, that's what started

21:15

to cause the friction

21:17

with Tupper and

21:20

Brownie. After the

21:23

break, how Tupperware

21:26

the company started

21:29

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22:47

As the 50s were on, Earl

22:49

became increasingly aggravated by Brownie's

22:51

popularity. Brownie became increasingly aggravated

22:54

by Earl's micromanaging. They were both

22:56

trying to grow the company, but

22:58

they were often at odds. A

23:01

situation that became... For

24:00

the 1957 Jubilee, the theme was

24:03

around the world in 80 days.

24:05

And the highlight was a massive

24:07

excursion organized by Brownie. Brownie had

24:09

bought her own island in the

24:11

middle of Lake Toho, which is

24:13

in Kasimi right near Tupperware headquarters.

24:16

And Brownie had decided she was

24:18

going to have a luau on

24:20

her private island. So the thousand

24:22

plus attendees all headed off to

24:24

Brownie's Island in boats ready to

24:26

party. but the weather had something

24:29

else in mind. If you're ever

24:31

in central Florida in the summer,

24:33

in the evening, you can almost

24:35

set your watch by the thunderstorms

24:37

that are going to brew up.

24:40

And sure enough, they did. And

24:42

there was no cover for anybody

24:44

on the island. The boat drivers

24:46

were struggling to get people back

24:48

on dry land, and there were

24:50

a bunch of boat accidents, and

24:53

there were people injured. And it

24:55

was a disaster. And Brownie left.

24:57

and went home. Wait, sorry. So

24:59

she gets off. Brownie left. She

25:01

saved her own skin, let's say,

25:03

you know? By the end of

25:06

the evening, 21 people were in

25:08

the hospital with serious injuries. Some

25:10

of the people who were injured

25:12

ended up filing lawsuits, and Earl

25:14

Tupper wanted no part of that,

25:17

and he was living. Earl had

25:19

also already started thinking about cashing

25:21

out and selling the company, and

25:23

he did not want to head

25:25

strong, self-interested female executive with a

25:27

lot of pull internally and externally

25:30

to get in the way. He

25:32

felt she would be a liability.

25:34

He was just going to go

25:36

out there and say, you're done.

25:38

Earl Tupper fired Brownie Wise in

25:40

January of 1958. She didn't own

25:43

any stock or have any stake

25:45

in the company. She didn't even

25:47

own the house she lived in

25:49

the house she lived in. and

25:51

she never again achieved the kind

25:54

of success she'd had at Tupperware.

25:56

Meanwhile at the end of the

25:58

year Earl sold Tupperware to Rex

26:00

drug for $16 million, divorced his

26:02

wife, and bought his own island

26:04

off the coast of Panama.

26:07

He also renounced his American

26:09

citizenship to avoid paying

26:11

taxes. All this means that

26:13

by 1959, the two

26:15

people most responsible for

26:17

making topperware, topperware, were

26:19

no longer at the

26:21

company. But they had done

26:23

such a good job establishing

26:26

the brand that even without

26:28

them. Tupperware entered a

26:30

golden age that lasted

26:32

for decades. He told

26:34

me, huh? We're having

26:37

a party. A Tupperware

26:39

party. It's Tupperware's 10th

26:41

birthday and you're getting

26:43

the present. For over

26:46

30 years Tupperware is

26:48

revolutionized food storage.

26:51

Now we've revolutionized

26:54

food preparation. Tupperware.

26:56

Now you're cooking. It's in the

26:59

60s and 70s that Tupperware became

27:01

a fact of American life. It

27:03

was a useful and popular

27:05

product, but also an iconic

27:08

and intimate one that almost

27:10

everyone had a personal connection

27:12

to. My mom still uses

27:14

the cakekeeper, and I don't know

27:17

what else she would put a

27:19

cake in. It has to be

27:21

the old Tupperware thing. And you

27:24

can also tell what the big...

27:26

like aesthetic color palette of a

27:28

particular decade was in America by

27:31

what colors Tupperware came in during

27:33

those years. You know in the

27:35

60s it was like pastels it

27:38

was very girly it was very

27:40

feminine in 70s and 80s you

27:42

get avocado green in citrus and

27:44

orange and it's all very like

27:47

warm and deep and sort of

27:49

looks like you've smoked around it

27:51

for a long time. Tupperware

27:55

got so big and so

27:57

dominant that it was One

28:00

of these sort of rare American

28:02

brands where the name of the

28:04

brand becomes synonymous with an entire

28:07

type of product, no matter who

28:09

it's made by. Your Tupperware lady

28:11

has the freshest ideas for locking

28:13

in freshness. But in the 1980s,

28:15

Tupperware's fortune slowly started to turn.

28:18

With more and more women in

28:20

the workforce, the Tupperware party started

28:22

to seem like a lot of

28:24

effort just to get something to

28:27

hold leftover mashed potatoes. And in

28:29

the years to come, the plastic

28:31

holding those potatoes became unknown health

28:33

hazard. The very things that had

28:35

once been so innovative about Tupperware

28:38

were starting to hold it back.

28:40

Still, Tupperware might have been able

28:42

to survive if not for the

28:44

competition. But when Earl Tupper's patents

28:47

ran out, you could buy other

28:49

perfectly functional food storage containers, often

28:51

for less at any store. You

28:53

might call whatever container you were

28:56

buying Tupperware, but strictly speaking, it

28:58

was not. For years, things were

29:00

obviously trending in the wrong direction,

29:02

but it all came to a

29:04

head in September of 2024. For

29:07

Topperware, the party is over. The

29:09

iconic brand wants a staple of

29:11

American kitchens filed this week for

29:13

bankruptcy, citing what it called macroeconomic

29:16

challenges. Topperware, the brand still exists,

29:18

even a diminished state. It's actually

29:20

even sold in stores, where it

29:22

competes with its own descendants, who

29:24

are thriving. We're still living in

29:27

the world that Topperware built. Topperware

29:29

built. if we are also inhabiting

29:31

it a little differently. You know,

29:33

Willa, listening to this episode, one

29:36

thing that really jumps out at

29:38

me is how much the Tupperware

29:40

story sounds familiar? Like, it seemed

29:42

to prefigure all of these things

29:45

that we see in the economy.

29:47

today, right? Yeah, I mean Brownie

29:49

Wise was like this really, as

29:51

we say, a pro-to-influencer and sort

29:53

of like direct sales appeal and

29:56

the power of just like someone

29:58

you know or you know maybe

30:00

you follow on tic-toc and feel

30:02

like you know has not abated

30:05

all of those things are still

30:07

a huge part of what's driving

30:09

sales and what we buy and

30:11

she figured that all out a

30:14

really long time yeah I'd be

30:16

terrified if she had had a

30:18

tic-toc back then she could have

30:20

taken over the world oh my

30:22

god I know what would she

30:25

have done I mean maybe she

30:27

would have sold us stuff or

30:29

she would have taken over the

30:31

world those those are the only

30:34

two choices choices choices For

30:40

even more about Tupperware and storage

30:42

containers, this was just part of

30:44

the full decoder ring episode. The

30:47

full episode is linked in our

30:49

show notes. Our original episode of

30:52

Decodering was reported and produced by

30:54

Olivia Briley. Decodering is also produced

30:56

by me, Evan Chung, Max Friedman,

30:59

and Katie Shepard. Derek John was

31:01

executive producer, Merritt Jacob, is senior

31:03

technical director. The Planet Money edition

31:06

of this episode was produced by

31:08

Willa Rubin and edited by our

31:11

executive producer Alex Goldmark. I'm Thefkow.

31:13

And I'm Willa Paskin. This is

31:15

NPR. Thanks for listening. I

31:20

actually am so surprised that they could just

31:22

chuck like a Tupperware full of grape juice

31:24

across the room because I can't do that.

31:26

I know it was insane. Did they have

31:28

some secret technology that we like is lost

31:31

to time now that we don't have? We'd

31:33

have to like, we're like fact check around

31:35

me. I don't know. This message comes from

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