BUCKTOWN — In the olden days, a post office was where people met up, gossiped and chatted with the postmaster, who knew everyone.
In Bucktown, Tom Bellino's UPS Store at 1658 N. Milwaukee Ave., which offers mailbox rentals for small business owners and services like holiday gift mailing (warning: lines are out the door during peak times), has become a place where people gather.
To further interaction, Bellino, who remodeled the shop over the summer, added a free children's book swap, housed inside of a re-purposed newspaper dispenser that was painted over with an image from Shel Silverstein's classic book, "The Giving Tree."
Unveiled over Thanksgiving weekend near The UPS Store's front door, Bellino said that patrons who've noticed the swap dispenser have already dropped off kids books as well as taken some "new" books for their kids.
"At least 20 people have used it so far," Bellino said earlier this month.
Conveniently, the UPS franchise store is across the street from the Bucktown-Wicker Park library, 1701 N. Milwaukee Ave., too.
In addition to the book swap, Bellino also added a new community news board in the corner of the store that's intended to be a resource for posting local events as well as copies of the printed DNAinfo Chicago edition.
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