HIGH POINT MUSEUM

Historical Society Series Feeds The Hungry

The High Point Museum had a great turnout for High Point Historical Society Presents: Guilford County’s Grocery Store History. The High Point Historical Society Monthly Program Series took place on Wednesday, Jan. 18.

January’s topic was "Guilford County’s Grocery Store History” by David Gwynn, librarian, urbanist and retail historian at UNCG. As the creator of Groceteria.com, one of the first and largest websites devoted to supermarket history, Gwynn spoke on the history of grocery stores in Guilford County.

Born and raised in Greensboro, Gwynn worked various jobs in Myrtle Beach, Charlotte and San Francisco before returning to his hometown. His time in California allowed him to learn web design in 1997. When he returned to Greensboro, he put that knowledge to use working for the University Libraries of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Gwynn is the university’s Digitization Coordinator and Associate Professor. He uses his proximity to the city’s historical documents to further his research on Guilford County’s varied and intriguing grocery store history.

Along with the program, the Historical Society partnered with local grocery stores to sponsor a food drive to benefit D-Up. With every canned food donation, attendees received a raffle ticket to win local grocery store gift cards. Sponsors for the food drive include Food Lion, Harris Teeter and The Fresh Market, all of whom graciously donated gift cards for the raffle. About 30 people participated, and the museum donated a tub load of canned food to D-Up.