SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
This week, one of America's most iconic brands filed for bankruptcy. Tupperware was a staple of American households for decades, so much so that many people refer to any plastic container as Tupperware, whether or not it is the brand. The company emerged in postwar America, and sales opportunities once revolutionized women's earning potential. But over the years, a new generation of sellers have picked up the torch. Drag queens have become some of Tupperware's most successful salespeople over the past few decades. Oscar Quintero has found similar success selling Tupperware in drag as Kay Sedia, and he joins us now to talk about his experience. Oscar, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
OSCAR QUINTERO: Hi. Thanks for having me.
DETROW: Can I just - can I get Kay Sedia's sales pitch before we talk more broadly?
QUINTERO: Sure.
(As Kay Sedia) Hola, everyone. It's me, Kay Sedia, your 18-year-old international high-fashion model Tupperware diva chola from Tijuana. What? (Laughter).
DETROW: I need to say that at one point, you were, like, the No. 1 seller in the country, right?
QUINTERO: Back in the late 2010s, I was. And then I consistently remained, like, in the top five.
DETROW: All right.
QUINTERO: But as those other queens started coming in, it got very competitive between us all.
DETROW: How did you get started?
QUINTERO: So I did a drag pageant back in the year 2000, and I had a great time. And then, like, a week later, I ended up performing at a club called Dragstrip 66. And then from there, I just, like, kind of dipped my toes in for about two years performing in clubs, and I didn't love it. I didn't like being in clubs.
DETROW: Yeah.
QUINTERO: And then I went to a Tupperware party. The woman that did the party, her name was Frank (ph). She was an old punk rock singer from back in the '80s. And she had a - like, almost like a comedy routine, and she called herself Frank, the all-American, Jewish, folk-singing, surfing lesbian Tupperware lady.
DETROW: (Laughter).
QUINTERO: And she did a whole gimmick with the guitar, and I was cracking up. And by the end of her demonstration, I thought to myself, I could do this in drag.
DETROW: I don't know if you want to give away your trade secrets, but, like, what was the key to making all those sales? You're performing, but you're also selling. How did you make it work? And how did the character play into that?
QUINTERO: The thing that I loved the most when I would do a Tupperware party is, half the time, the ladies would say to me, oh, I wasn't even go to buy anything, but you convinced me. And it's that thing; it's the way you make people feel when they're in your presence. You know, I'm giving them a show. I'm telling jokes about the Tupperware. The Tupperware sold itself.
DETROW: Do any of those Tupperware jokes translate to the radio?
QUINTERO: OK, well, one of them - (as Kay Sedia) the classic impression tumblers. You'll notice that the colors match my makeup. And you'll also notice that they're ribbed for your pleasure.
DETROW: (Laughter).
QUINTERO: So, you know, it was a little blue at times.
DETROW: Yeah. So, I mean, obviously, this was your zone. You were doing well at it. You were having fun at it. You were successful. How are you feeling with this news of the bankruptcy?
QUINTERO: Well, I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed.
DETROW: Yeah.
QUINTERO: Tupperware took a big turn right before the pandemic, and then the pandemic kind of amplified all the problems that were already there. I found myself struggling to keep my sales where they were before the pandemic. Because obviously, we're an in-home party, and nobody was having anybody in their house during that whole time.
DETROW: Right.
QUINTERO: And it's unfortunate. You know, I still think it's a wonderful company. I still think that, at its core, it's about building people, which is what I benefited from because I was a lost, insecure young man, and I kind of fell into Tupperware just as a joke, and then it ended up becoming this career that amplified my life in so many different ways.
DETROW: And I can hear that talking to you now. Like, I can hear the way you talk about it. And I'm wondering, like, what are a few of the things that you think you really learned from this experience, from this job?
QUINTERO: Well, for example, I was a high school dropout, and I didn't have many goals. I didn't have many big dreams of kind of getting beyond. I worked in a grocery store, and I didn't think beyond that. And then when I started doing this just for fun and then started doing really well with - this became very lucrative - like, probably about three or four years there, I made over $100,000 a year just making people laugh. And I was beside myself because I grew up poor. And the fact that I was not living paycheck to paycheck, the way that I saw my father work - it's like, you work to survive. You know, and all of a sudden, I was thriving financially, and I was able to, you know, get a better apartment at the time, and, you know, I now own a home with my husband because of my career with Tupperware. But what started happening is, there was these small little goals that I started achieving, and all of a sudden, I was like, oh, wow, I can do this.
And then I saw they did an incentive for a Pontiac convertible. This was back in 2008. And it was an 18-month program. And I remember laying it out, making a plan, making a goal, creating a newsletter with all my previous clients and just really stretching this out and achieving it. And I got the car.
DETROW: You got the car.
QUINTERO: I got the car, and I kept that car for about six or seven years before I sold it. But the fact that I was able to do something like that, in - you know, for anybody who knew my background - was such a big deal to me. It boosted my confidence in a way that I never, ever expected a plastic bowl to do.
DETROW: That's Oscar Quintero, AKA Kay Sedia. Thank you so much for joining us.
QUINTERO: Thank you so much, Scott. I appreciate it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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