When Cory Tyson was first offered the position as manager of People’s Place, he didn’t know the first thing about running the small shop.

“They walked me through the process, and I opened shop three days later. It was a mess trying to figure out everything by myself,” Tyson said. “We were out of lids for God knows how long.”

Tyson first managed People’s Place, a nonprofit, student-run coffee shop located in the basement of Hendricks Chapel, during the summer of 2013 before his senior year at Syracuse University. He returned this past summer to manage the shop and continued the job into the fall semester.

“We’re affiliated with Syracuse University but we are our own entity,” said Tyson, a first-year graduate student in classical guitar.

Tyson had never managed a shop before but decided to take the position that was offered to him.

When he first began as manager, Tyson said many of the problems he faced were figuring out what to order and when. But the issues Tyson deals with now are related to making sure the products that People’s Place offers are of great quality.

“I’m looking at what we sell and what we could sell and what people are buying as opposed to what we’re buying,” Tyson said. “We’re nonprofit, but we still need money to keep People’s Place going.”

People’s Place gets its products from vendors such as Geddes Bakery, Liberty Deli, Mountain Grove Coffee and Vermont Coffee Company. Tyson said their current vendors have been “very good” for the shop and that the key to finding successful vendors involves doing research online or visiting local shops.

Tyson said that compared to his other job with Student Centers and Programming Services, managing the shop and the other students who work there is much more relaxed and laid-back.

“All of us have a lot going on. We know that we’re all students and we’re in school for school,” Tyson said. “It’s great because we can have this job and not have to put the job over school.”

Published on December 3, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Clare: clramire@syr.edu