In the past, bars of soap were typically sold individually by being packed in boxes, wrappers or the like. Recently, however, with the rise in popularity of club stores and the like, consumers have preferred to buy multiple bars of soap at once. Therefore, in order to market multiple bars of soap, manufacturers have typically packaged individual bars of soap in flexible paper-based wrappers having semi-rigid paperboard inserts. Thereafter, a number of these wrapped individual bars of soap would then be taped together. Other manufacturers package individual bars of soap in their own box and then wrap a number of these individual boxes together with thermoplastic film, tape or the like. However, this type of packaging was very wasteful in that each individual bar needed its own box or wrapper and on top of that the bundle itself needed additional packaging, such as wrappings, tape or the like in order to be sold as a single unit.
In order to overcome the above disadvantages there has been a desire to package a stack of soap bars in a single reclosable container or bag. Typically the soap bars are tightly constrained within the bag and stacked within the package in face-to-face fashion, with the faces of the soap bars being parallel to the reclosable top. However, with certain soap bar formulations, the individual bars will sometimes have a tendency to stick together. This makes retrieval of a single bar of soap from the bag difficult and this is further exasperated by the fact that many people retrieve a bar of soap after having been in the shower for a while. Moreover, many packages have the soap bars tightly packed within which also makes retrieval of a single bar difficult.
There has, therefore, been a need for a dispensing device for the abovedescribed type of package, which allows for easy dispensing of a single bar of soap and also prevents the bars from sticking together.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds