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Tupperware’s Sweet Spot Shifts to Indonesia

From NYT

By Joe Cachrane.
February 28, 2015

Indonesia is, in many ways, in Tupperware’s sweet spot. As the economy has taken off in recent years, an expanding middle class now has more disposable income for containers of all shapes and sizes that are sturdier than those found in local markets. And, as in 1960s America, many women stay at home to keep house and raise their children, creating a captive audience for parties run by saleswomen who have begun to sidle past conservative social mores and into the work force.

In a testimonial for “Chain of Confidence,” Ms. Upi said that when she started out as a Tupperware saleswoman, she had to deliver products to customers using public transportation minivans. But within two years, she says, she was earning enough that she bought a new car and a house. “I became more confident, knowledgeable and disciplined,” she said.

Ms. Amelia, the saleswoman at the Villa Mutiara party, had a similar tale. Six years ago, she was trying to keep afloat a restaurant that she ran in South Jakarta with her husband. Then she was invited to a Tupperware party that she said changed her life.

After being recruited as a saleswoman and struggling to get her husband to agree to let her take the job, she started off selling part-time, squeezing the parties in between her duties at the restaurant. Today she is a regional manager, running about 20 parties a month in and around Jakarta. Ms. Amelia, 41, earns the equivalent of about $2,400 a month — six-times her monthly profits from the restaurant, which they have sold.

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