Coffee, Community, and a Crafting Nook: Riley Warren ’28 at The C-Shop in Yellow Springs, Ohio
Jun 25, 2025While the village of Yellow Springs has a beautiful selection of small business shops for residents and visitors to buy from, these shops are not always affordable, especially for a college student. The C-Shop, located in The Olive Kettering Library (as well as online and in the Wellness Center), is a campus convenience store meant for students who need essentials like hygiene products, over-the-counter medication, snacks, and other items like crafting materials and school supplies. With the C-Shop located next to ASB (Arts & Science Building) and McGregor, students have an easily accessible place to shop between classes.
The C-Shop has gone through many changes and ideas. It was initially made to be a student-run coffee shop to help foster a deeper community between students and staff, although that never came to full fruition. In recent years, this shop has been under no specific management and has had no big plans for the future due to staff changes and incomplete projects remaining. For my CO-OP, I was assigned the role of Assistant Manager for the C-Shop, working under Dawn Richter. In this role, with Dawn’s help, I have been able to make significant and noticeable improvements to The C-Shop. As Assistant Manager, daily tasks consist of making sure everything is stocked, checking people out, and organizing products. However, those are not the only things I am responsible for. I’ve also been tasked with creating new Antioch College merchandise, such as mugs, T-shirts, stickers, and jackets, and helping curate the Crafting Nook. The Crafting Nook is an area in the C-Shop that provides crafting materials like yarn, Knitting Needles, Crochet hooks, and journaling supplies. I have also had to become accustomed to sites like Square and Printful, which house all Antioch merch and products sold within the C-Shop.
With the C-Shop Project restarting, there have been some unavoidable obstacles, such as figuring out what students want to be sold within the shop, figuring out how much to price items while keeping it affordable but still turning a profit, earning grants and approval for new equipment such as drink fridges, new floors, and merchandise orders. Like most careers or jobs, communication plays a huge part in the success of a business. Communication has always been hard for me, but while working at the C-Shop, I have been given the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone by having meetings with staff I don’t know and getting to interact with other students on campus. Being on CO-OP in the C-Shop gives me the opportunity to strengthen my communication skills while remaining in a comfortable and familiar environment.
With me studying Social Enterprise and Social Innovation, this CO-OP has not only taught me hands-on skills in areas I want to work in the future but has allowed me to foster a sense of community within Antioch College. Being able to directly and positively impact a community I am in has been a wonderful opportunity, and I am glad to be a part of re-making a new and improved community learning hub.