Tupperware Queen welcomes famous plastic homeware's NZ return
She’s a self-described Tupperware addict with “hundreds and hundreds” of pieces of the ubiquitous plastic homeware spread across every room of her rural South Auckland home.
Twenty are in Tina Hunter’s fridge, a further 10 occupy her freezer, and more than 50 Modular Mates are in constant use throughout the rest of her kitchen – which now risks getting even more organised with Tupperware’s return to New Zealand four years after the business shut the lid on sales here.
“My house is like a Tupperware explosion … every room in the house has Tupperware”, the 59-year-old said, admitting to a “seriously bad addiction” to the kitchenware brand.
“But I was thinking, what is it? And I came to the conclusion that it’s actually its usefulness … have you noticed people never throw away Tupperware?”
The homeware that helped generations store leftovers and organise pantries is back on sale in New Zealand from tomorrow after a four-year absence sparked by the disruption of its traditional party-plan model during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although famously sold for decades through home-based gatherings hosted by independent salespeople, under new Australian distributor H.A.G. Tupperware will be sold online, as well as in-store at yet-to-be-publicised retailers, H.A.G. imports head of sales Daniel Grundmann said.
Replicas of heritage designs such as the sunburst lid are among Tupperware products on sale as the brand returns to New Zealand.
Tupperware was a trusted heritage brand that had “missed the boat” in changing its business model away from house parties, so they were thrilled with the chance to launch it back into the market, Grundmann said.
“We expect some beautiful, very fresh, exciting colours, and the nostalgic ranges that were there in the past … and [we’re] looking forward to new shapes and moulds coming forward in the future.”
Tupperware’s Australian launch three months ago had already seen “huge” sales, and he expected no less on this side of the Tasman given the 80-year-old brand was “very much a household name” in New Zealand.
New products ranged from stackable containers and multi-compartment containers to water bottles and bowls, all free of the chemicals BPA, PFAS, PFOA and PTFE and including replicas of heritage designs such as the sunburst lid.
Microwave-friendly products are part of the Tupperware range returning to sale in New Zealand after a four-year absence.
As for Hunter, she’s excited to see the new collection, even if she’s not sure she needs any more Tupperware.
While the mother-of-one’s Tupperware treasure trove is estimated at somewhere beyond 500 pieces, she’s quick to describe herself as “an accumulator, rather than a collector”.
“I’m sometimes called Tupperware Queen, but I don’t sort of go about flaunting the fact that I’ve got lots of Tupperware. It’s just that I have lots of Tupperware.”
Her favourite in the five decades since her first purchase – a wheaten-coloured baking storage container – is a can opener she’s owned more than 20 years.
It’s still the easiest to use despite arthritis in her hands, said Hunter, who is also a former Tupperware consultant and party host.
Also prized are a vintage vegetable keeper gifted by her grandfather-in-law, a highly sought-after cheese keeper from the 1990s and a rare Shape-O keyring, believed to be scarce after the original manufacturing mould for the tiny replica blue and red kids’ shape sorting ball was broken.
Tupperware is coming back to New Zealand after four years away.
But aesthetic still sometimes trumped practicality.
A white double colander had joined her collection despite the married mum already owning two more.
She couldn’t resist the all-white version because it resembled a fictional spacecraft famous for its warp-speed adventures across the cosmos.
“I’m a Trekkie ... and to me it looks like the [Star Trek TV show spaceship] USS Enterprise”.
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