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Does grocery shopping feel like just another chore? Maybe that's because today's big-box retailers and discounts stores have lost the kitschy charm of 1950s architecture and sleek 1960s modern styling.

If you miss the pre-prefab Safeways or perhaps you're lucky enough to have a vintage Luckys down the block, you may want to join David Gwynn and the legion of "groceteria" fans who swap photos and stories about charming Winn-Dixies and A&P markets.

Gwynn's site combines well-researched history with a dash of nostalgia, a small dose of irony, and a lot of love for the days before cookie-cutter strip malls overtook America. We caught up with David in between shopping trips to see what's new in the land of old stores.

When we reviewed your site way back in 2001, you were living in San Francisco and hunting down the few '60s-'70s era Safeways left in Yahoo!'s neck of the woods. Now you're in North Carolina. How does the grocery landscape compare?

Everything is a lot cheaper. And the lines are a lot shorter. And here, we have liver pudding and Cheerwine freely available in all stores.

But as far as history—which is my primary focus—goes, there are a lot fewer old stores here. In California, land is so expensive that it's often more economical to work with the same old space you're already in rather than try to build a new store. That's not the case here, though. Thus, it's really hard to find vintage stores still in operation here. But you still run across one here and there.  Read the full profile...

Since we wrote about BookMooch in late 2006, the site's membership has doubled, and the number of mooched books has more than tripled. Founder John Buckman has clearly encouraged a worldwide community of book lovers and library fans to share their favorite reads. When we checked in with John, he told us about his attachment to books, the personal notes he gets with his mooched novels, and how sharing helps the global community get along just a little bit better.

Hey John, how did you get the inspiration for BookMooch?

I was on vacation and visiting a small town community center for a concert, and the entire entry area of the community center was filled with book shelves. There was a sign that said "leave a book, take a book" and people were browsing the collection, others were bringing boxes of books in, and still others were talking about books, recommending them to others. I loved the fun, friendly feeling that existed in that space, and I asked myself "could I recreate this feeling on the Internet?" When I went searching for book swaps, I did find other sites, but none that captured the camaraderie, friendship, and most of the all, the love of books, that this community center did. Read the full profile...