Tupperware's sweet spot shifts to Indonesia

Jakarta

THE party had the feel of 1960s America, almost. A group of housewives, thrilled to get a break from the daily routine of hanging laundry and shuttling their children to and from school, sat in a circle, listening to a friend hawk plastic storage bowls in a dizzying array of pastels.

Some shushed babies on their laps; others occasionally leaned in for juicy pieces of gossip.

The women were, in fact, at a modern-day Tupperware party in the company's biggest market. The twist? That market is halfway around the world from the product's Massachusetts birthplace - in Indonesia.

Once a fixture in middle-class US kitchens, Tupperware has become a bit of an afterthought in its home country even as its popularity has risen abroad. (Germany was the top marketplace until Indonesia slid past it two years ago.) 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 many women stay at home to keep house and raise their children, creating a captive a…