Tupperware
The country was ripe for the introduction of amateur inventor Earl Tupper’s plastic containers in 1946. The war had ended, food was once again plentiful, and with the migration to the suburbs American shopping habits had changed. Housewives were no longer walking to their neighborhood grocery stores; they were driving to supermarkets and buying in bulk. Suddenly they had to deal with leftovers and storage, and they discovered that in their (now-ubiquitous) refrigerators food quickly dried out and lost flavor. Tupperware, unlike the traditional crockery or glass containers that were then in use, didn’t crack or break and was lightweight and compact. True, there were other early plastic containers around, but they were unwieldy and some required rubber bands to keep their lids in place. Tupper devised an airtight seal (patterned after the inverted rim on a can of paint) which locked in freshness and flavor. Word quickly spread about this new invention, thanks to the Tupperware parties that became a social phenomenon of the ’50s. Though inexpensive plastic storage containers are now in every supermarket, Tupperware still has its devotees.
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