Tupperware CEO calls Americans cheap: Top five recycled food storage ideas

Plastic sandwich bags are wonderful for sandwiches, of course. They also serve well for little bits and pieces of food that needs to be stored after a meal. Ziplock bags are the best, and they will even hold leaky leftovers. It is not uncommon to see people, especially in the South, store food in the bag that a loaf of bread came in. Some leftover biscuits or french fries are carefully tied up in a bread bag pulled out of a drawer. These bags can easily melt, so food needs to be cool before being placed in a recycled bread bag. American cooks love their butter bowls. Those big plastic crocks that margarine comes in are perfect for leftover food or even storing a salad in the fridge. The smaller ones are great for packing little salads in lunches or storing small amounts of  food that you don't want to waste.As tacky as Mr. Goings may think American cooks are, most of us use and reuse our butter bowls.  And, you have to have butter bowls on hand to send food home with people after a meal, especially if you live in the South. Everyone goes home with a butter bowl of something!Americans may be cheap, but they are particularly picky about their mayonnaise. They do, however, get their money's worth out of those mayonnaise jars! Whether glass or plastic, mayonnaise jars are perfect for storing almost anything. Many American cooks use them to make jelly and other homemade items, although careful attention to canning safety is necessary. View the list ยป
American cooks just don't value classy containers for leftover vegetables

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Rick Goings, shown above attending a designer fashion show, thinks Americans are cheap. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times on Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, the CEO of Tupperware explains their poor sales in the United States on the fact that Americans do not appreciate quality like their European and Japanese counterparts.

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Rick Goings condescendingly describes the overall attitude of the United States as "basically a 'Wal-Mart market' filled with shoppers who prefer cheap over quality." The LA Times continues:

"Why do we do better in Europe than we do in the U.S.?" the CEO said in a conference call this week with analysts. "Hey, take a look at the average brand of cab that you get into in New York City. I mean they're filthy. They're junk. Get in a cab over here, it's a Mercedes or an Audi."

The CEO of Tupperware, the prince of pricey, plastic containers, thinks that bargain conscious American cooks are just too cheap to purchase their fancy food storage items. And, according to the above quote, they are dirty, too.

While Tupperware has long been popular in the United States, most of the Tupperware in use has been in use for a long, long time. And, the innovative and creative American women (and men) have long been prone to make do and improvise when times are tight, and times have been tight in the United States for several years. If American cooks have to choose between buying food for their families or buying fancy food storage containers, they will come up with another idea for storing food!

Let's look at the top five ways that Americans recycle items to store food. You will probably recognize some of these ideas from your own kitchen. Feel free to leave a comment with any creative ideas that you use to store food at your house.

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  • Americans may be cheap, but they are particularly picky about their mayonnaise. They do, however, get their money's worth out of those mayonnaise jars! Whether glass or plastic, mayonnaise jars are perfect for storing almost anything. Many American cooks use them to make jelly and other homemade items, although careful attention to canning safety is necessary. 
  • American cooks love their butter bowls. Those big plastic crocks that margarine comes in are perfect for leftover food or even storing a salad in the fridge. The smaller ones are great for packing little salads in lunches or storing small amounts of  food that you don't want to waste.As tacky as Mr. Goings may think American cooks are, most of us use and reuse our butter bowls.  And, you have to have butter bowls on hand to send food home with people after a meal, especially if you live in the South. Everyone goes home with a butter bowl of something!
  • Plastic sandwich bags are wonderful for sandwiches, of course. They also serve well for little bits and pieces of food that needs to be stored after a meal. Ziplock bags are the best, and they will even hold leaky leftovers. It is not uncommon to see people, especially in the South, store food in the bag that a loaf of bread came in. Some leftover biscuits or french fries are carefully tied up in a bread bag pulled out of a drawer. These bags can easily melt, so food needs to be cool before being placed in a recycled bread bag. 
  • Most American cooks are always in possession of a roll of aluminum foil to cover a bowl for the fridge. Most frugal American cooks usually have a stash of wrinkled up, wadded up foil that they will get more than one use out of. Please, don't anyone tell Tupperware CEO Rick Goings about this! If a piece of foil just held a baked potato, it can do double to cover a small bowl for storage or to wrap up a few leftover hot dogs.
  • Almost all sandwich meat now comes in square plastic containers that are very good quality for the price: free. Rick Goings was wrong about American cooks because we do recognize quality. Good, reusable containers with lids that cost nothing sounds like quality to most of us. The trick to using these containers as food storage is to try to buy the same brand so that the lids fit all of the containers.  They will even survive the top rack of the dishwasher with little problem. These containers also make great lunch-packing containers for a little salad or leftovers.
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, Knoxville Cooking Examiner

Barbie Crafts enjoys pursuing her freelance career by writing on a variety of topics here at the Examiner. She has also been published on Associated Content, Demand Media, Triond, and Crafts 'n Things magazine.

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