Evidence abounds that the world is changing more rapidly than most of us would prefer. And it seems like everything’s changing all at once, turning something relatively stable into something completely different.

Take electric cars. Their sales are a small percentage of the number of vehicles sold, but that figure continues to increase. The Biden administration seems insistent on growing electric sales more rapidly, but the market is saying it doesn’t need government’s help to respond to rising customer demand.

Take newspapers. The number of people who prefer perusing the pages of a printed product continues to decline as these customers age. The future of reporting the news is on the internet, which makes the smartphone an incredibly important communications tool.

Take retail. For decades people visited malls and stores, browsing for clothing and other products. Then the industry got turned upside down by the internet, which offered every buyer the chance to look at entire product lines 24 hours a day from a computer in their home. Today you can order online and have your stuff loaded into the trunk of your car outside the store.

It’s a free country. You can’t praise America’s open, creative society — and then complain when people apply these liberties to new business ideas. Somebody’s always building a better mousetrap.

Our country’s ability to innovate is among the many reasons the world admires us. We’re a creative bunch, always trying new ideas. Many of them fail, but a few succeed to great degrees, and the pace of change continues.

Having said all that, there are a few things in American culture that should be solid and unchangeable. One of them is Tupperware, the plastic container products that since the end of World War II have been an essential component of every kitchen in America.

Brace yourself, unfortunately, for more change. Tupperware announced last week that it is on the brink of closing, and is trying to find new investors, sell real estate or lay off workers.

A story in The Washington Post said part of the problem may be the revolutionary way the company sold its products — through “Tupperware parties,” where women welcomed friends and neighbors into their homes to show how Tupperware could help them.

 Tupperware’s problem is that the world changed. The company stuck with its direct sales model and waited too long to fill up stores and websites with its plastic containers. That oversight also invited competition from products like Rubbermaid, Glad and Ziploc.

Tupperware created a new business model with its sales parties. But if the company really goes out of business, it will be a textbook lesson on how the failure to keep changing or trying new things can be fatal to any company.

“Even a household name doesn’t guarantee success,” the Post story lamented. That is true, and as the world’s pace of change picks up speed, people who overlook how this might affect them risk being unprepared for the many new opportunities just a few years away.

— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal