As the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” So it might be said about hand soap.
In its bar form, soap has existed literally thousands of years. Then, in the late 1970s, entrepreneur Robert Taylor introduced Softsoap — liquid soap in a bottle with a pump. It was Taylor’s answer to messy soap dishes which he viewed as a problem to be solved. People fell in love with it. Taylor’s novel invention lured almost 100 competitors into the burgeoning liquid soap market which quickly grew to a $120 million industry.
Well, as can happen, the more familiar we become with something, the more we learn about it - and hence the other old adage about familiarity and contempt.