When the party ends

Good morning, storage strategists. This is your Stock Market Rundown for September 23rd, 2024. Thanks for tuning in once again. Let’s get started:

TODAY’S TOP STORY: PLASTIC PANIC

If your grandma had a side hustle, it might have been selling Tupperware. But now the party’s over for the resealable food storage containers that once ruled suburban countertops: Tupperware filed for bankruptcy last week after years of sluggish sales.

Earlier this year, when Tupperware first waved the red flag that they were a going-concern risk, I told you about how the company was founded in the 1940s by chemist Earl Tupper. His innovation: figuring out how to manufacture a plastic food container with an airtight seal. 

Today, airtight containers are a dime a dozen—literally. A quick Amazon search surfaces countless interchangeable offerings, sold by vendors like JoyJolt, Vtopmart, and Homberking. (I assume Chinese factories use ChatGPT for brand-name brainstorming.)

Just a few months ago, the management of Tupperware thought they could turn things around by closing factories and laying off employees. But it was too little, too late. Tupperware has $812 million of outstanding debt, much of which has been snapped up by distressed-debt investors who are circling like vultures.

With restaurant costs going parabolic, meal prep has become popular with everybody from busy moms to bodybuilders. Sales of food-storage supplies are up 18% since before the pandemic. You’d think this social trend would be a boon for Tupperware.

Problem is, since Tupperware is sold via multi-level marketing, you can only get it through “Tupperware parties.” Ain’t nobody got time for that in between dropping the kids off at soccer practice and figuring out what’s for dinner.

Shopping as a social occasion died out with glass ashtrays and shag carpeting, and now, Tupperware’s fate is sealed, too.

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SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

• Open AI just launched a new series of artificial-intelligence models designed to spend more time thinking about answers before replying, so they can reason through complex tasks. Meanwhile, humans are still making dumb decisions during the three seconds it takes to say “hold my beer.”

• Maybe you can afford that bachelor party trip to Nashville after all. US household wealth has risen to a record $164 trillion, according to Federal Reserve data. That’s partly thanks to the stock market being on an absolute ripper.

• Road trip! US gasoline prices are poised to dip below three bucks a gallon for the first time in years. This means more money left over for gas-station Slim Jims and 5 Hour Energy drinks.

• Barley farmers are struggling as beer sales slump to their lowest levels since the 1970s. All thanks to bros who prefer crushing White Claws to tapping a keg of Coors while partying in the frat house basement.

That’s all I’ve got for now, valued associates. Let’s be sure to reconvene later this week. Yours in capitalism, The Axe

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