JAKARTA, Indonesia — The party had the feel of 1960s America, almost. A group of women, 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 news.
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 American 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.)
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After being recruited as a saleswoman and struggling to get her husband to agree to let her take the job, she started off selling part-time, squeezing the parties in between her duties at the restaurant. Today she is a regional manager, running about 20 parties a month in and around Jakarta. Ms. Amelia, 41, earns the equivalent of about $2,400 a month — six-times her monthly profits from the restaurant, which they have sold.
“Initially, my husband refused to let me sell Tupperware even part-time because he thought it might affect the restaurant,” Ms. Amelia said. “Now he works for me.”
A version of this article appears in print on March 1, 2015, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Tupperware’s Sweet Spot Shifts to Indonesia . Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
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