PARMA, Ohio — After being on a week-long work trip in sunny California, I came home to Parma to a blizzard.
The weather was gloomy, and although I had to wipe six days of snow off my car, I was still happy to get out of the house to meet my cousin and her daughter for her annual birthday manicures/pedicures.
As we were sitting in the pedicure chairs, feet soaking and massage chair kneading, I was catching up with some of my favorite people, with work as far out of my brain as possible. But all of a sudden, the work switch clicked on.
A woman walked into the nail salon and spoke openly to everyone at the shop about how nice the guys were who work at the Discount Tire outlet next door (the Parma Heights, Ohio, Discount Tire location opened in November 2014). She kept talking about her experience and how the dealership's workers offered to drive her over to the nail salon — even though it was not far away — since there was snow flying around outside and it was bitter cold.
Employees at the nail salon joined in the discussion, saying they've purchased their tires from the location and have heard other patrons say great things about the work done there.
I turned to my cousin, laughed and said, “See, I told you tires are important.”
Other ladies in the shop started asking about what services Discount Tire provides, etc.
I was so amazed that this was all unraveling before my eyes. I felt like I was in a tire shop commercial.
The other aspect I was impressed by was when the Discount Tire employee came into the nail salon to return the customer's keys. They previously had arranged this, and she was able to sign off on the work from the comfort of her pedicure chair.
As soon as I got home, I started writing this blog. And in doing so, I thought that any business manager would love to hear about such a great endorsement of their business, so I called the Discount Tire store. I spoke with location manager Chris Sallie to set up an interview.