On the Satchmo list, Mike Hostetler announced that his new Satchmo based store - Heartland Stores is live and ready for the world. It's always a thrill for me to see another store based on Satchmo make it into production. One of the things I'm really happy about is that there doesn't seem to be a "Satchmo look" to a store. What I mean by that is that OsCommerce sometimes promotes a certain style or look. It's not uncommon to go to an OsCommerce store and tell right from the beginning how it was made. Of course there are plenty of exceptions to my overly broad statement but I do think there's some truth there.

My goal with Satchmo has always been to build a better python based shopping cart. I've never met a python developer that was happy working with OsCommerce (or any of its php-based brethren). Every new Satchmo site helps me feel like we're making some progress. As to why Satchmo stores look unique, I think it comes down to three things:

1. The stock templates are really plain so change is required.
2. Django template are really easy to change.
3. Most people using Satchmo are not novice developers and understand that a unique looking site is important.

Anyway, congratulations to Mike and all the other folks using Satchmo to try to make a few dollars on the world wide web. I am very proud that people would choose to invest their time and money into a Satchmo-based site. You can see the growing list here.

As an aside, I noticed when I was on djangosites that it looks like there may even be a few more Satchmo sites in the wild that haven't been announced. Don't be shy! Let us know and help spread the word!