Ohio shop features cinema, barber and general store

MASSILLON, Ohio — From his bird's-eye view 20 feet above the ground atop a scissor lift, Tom Davis caught a glimpse of his future.

Of course, he didn't know it then. At 17, he figured his future might include a stint in the military and perhaps a career in law enforcement.

But the girl he spotted in July 2000 while installing shelves at a soon-to-open Northeast Ohio Walmart was about to send him rolling into the tire business, where, 20 years later he and his wife would offer a distinct tire shopping and auto service experience to customers at their Massillon business, 54 miles south of Cleveland.

Discount Tire Outlet Tire Pros, with a second location about 10 miles to the northeast in North Canton, is unlike most auto repair shops.

The Massillon store features a Main Street concept with a general store, barber shop, movie cinema, lemonade stand and children's play area — taking the boredom out of the service wait and making a trip to the auto garage a more convenient and interesting experience for men and women alike.

This article first appeared as part of our Small Shop Success stories in the April 7 edition.

The waiting area, with its brick, lamp post-lined roadway flanked by quaint shops, resembles an old-fashioned small town and gives off a museumlike vibe. A vintage Sunoco gas pump, Coca-Cola memorabilia and old glass oil jars that predate cans contribute to the ambiance. A variety of seating options — metal chairs, wooden rockers, a park bench and bar stools under a table — line the "street." String lights overhead add to the friendly, welcoming entry.

Customer complaints about wait times drove the change, Davis said.

"We thought, 'What can we do to better the business and make customers comfortable and feel at home while they're here?'"

The waiting room was small, "worse than a doctor's office," he said. "It wasn't conducive to the experience."

Davis' business has come a long way from its humble beginnings in a city most known for its powerhouse high school football team, the Massillon Tigers. Incidentally, Tire Group International's Cosmo Tire — one of the many brands sold at Discount Tire Outlet along with BFGoodrich, Bridgestone, Continental, Falken, Firestone, General, Goodyear, Hercules, Kelly, Michelin, Nexen and Toyo — features a Tiger mascot and is the official tire of the high school Tigers, according to Davis.

Russ Boughman started Discount Tire Outlet in 1981 — a year before Davis was born — selling used tires for about $10 a pop from the back of his pickup at a now defunct flea market a dozen miles south of Massillon.

His thought behind the name was simple: Using the word "discount" would attract customers. The dealership's use of the name is not to be confused with Reinalt Thomas Corp.'s Discount Tire brand, a national independent tire retailer with over 1,100 stores in 38 states.

A friend had told him there was money in used tires.

"Russ wanted to make money," his wife Kim Boughman said.

"And if you knew Russ like we all know Russ, he always wanted to be in his own business. So, if he thought he was going to make money, he thought it was a good idea."

Each week he visited nearby dealerships, picked up used tires, and together the couple peddled them to anyone in the market. They set up a garage in an old building that used to house a grocery store behind a laundry on the city's main drag, Lincoln Way — part of the well-known transcontinental Lincoln Highway (one of the first American highways built for automobiles), which stretches from New York to California.

At the flea market, they might sell 20 tires in a day. From the tiny garage advertised by a single plywood sign seen only by those driving west on Lincoln Way, some days there were no customers.

But the Boughmans kept at it. "You gotta do what you gotta do," said Russ Boughman, who still keeps an interest in the business though he stepped back about 15 years ago for health reasons. "It was a job."

Word-of-mouth helped the tire business grow, and Russ began bringing product to the couple's home just outside the city as room in the garage grew scarce.

While his wife, who was expecting a child, worked a factory job, Russ ran a limo business and made tire-repair house calls on the side while continuing to grow tire sales.

Their daughter Melissa was born in 1982 and became a teenager before her parents moved the tire shop to a rented building in another part of town.

In 2005, the Boughmans bought the current location in southeast Massillon.

Melissa was the driving force behind the most recent expansion of Discount Tire Outlet, but not before she met Tom Davis, which perches us back on that scissor lift.

She was 17 when she took a summer job helping to set up the layaway department at the same Walmart where she would meet her future spouse. Melissa was eyeing nursing and would later switch to veterinary technician.

They casually chatted while getting oriented to their jobs, but it was from his vantage point high above the store that Davis knew, "I gotta get her number," he recently recalled.

They began dating and by January 2001, Davis was working for Russ at the tire shop on Melissa's suggestion to her dad.

"It was the best idea she ever had," Boughman said. "He was a worker."

Tom Davis started as a tire technician, learning the business from the ground up. He and Melissa were married in 2004, but not before Tom tried to leave the tire shop twice to pursue other interests.

"You have a future here," he recalled his future father-in-law telling him in 2003. And, "I already had notions of asking Miss to marry me," so the road ahead for Davis seemed clear.

"The kids have done more with that business than we ever did," said Kim Boughman, who noted until Tom joined the team, "we were still doing receipts on paper."

The Boughmans were not fully convinced their daughter's expansion idea, which she had penciled on a steno pad, would fly.

"She wanted to have a diner there," Kim Boughman said. "Your bread and butter is your tires."

When the restaurant plan was scaled back to more of a concession stand offering hot dogs, sodas, chips and other snacks, the Boughmans were on board and construction began just before COVID started shuttering some businesses in 2020.

Supply shortages and delays, ever-increasing material costs and building and equipment expenses added up to a roughly $600,000 investment.

"We probably wouldn't have tackled that expansion had we known the final dollar expense pre-COVID," Davis said. "But I'm glad we did it."

Discount Tire Outlet fared well during the pandemic and continues to thrive.

Davis declined to provide annual sales numbers but offered, "We sell a lot of tires. I hit the (sales) goals set by manufacturers," he said. "I'm program compliant."

The now 75,000-sq.-ft. Massillon location has grown to 11 service bays from two and 15 employees from three. (The North Canton shop also has 11 bays with eight employees.)

While the bulk of the business is tire sales, it's a full-service shop where customers can get an oil change or have mechanical work on their vehicles while they catch a flick.

Parents can entertain their kids in Harvey's Toy Store and rock their babies in the nursery, shop for glassware, T-shirts and children's clothing in Retread's General Store or just enjoy the atmosphere and vintage displays.

Customers can get a trim in the three-chair barber shop where a beautician is also being brought on board to offer women a cut and style.

On one visit, long-time customer Tom Geissinger was using the Wi-Fi to catch up on some work on his laptop while a movie played on the big screen. He said since the expansion, it's no longer a chore for his wife to bring the car in to a "loud and stinky" tire shop.

"It's more inviting for (her)," he said. "It's not, 'Will you take it?' anymore."

Texas Wilson has been coming to Discount Tire Outlet for 10 years. He appreciates the hometown service and customer care. "I have a problem with transportation," he explained. "I like the convenience of the loaner car," one of the other amenities offered to those unable to wait.

Davis enjoys the buying power being a Tire Pros shop gives his business.

"We don't lose who we are," he said of his dealership's affiliation with the Tire Pros franchise program.

"Every Tire Pros location out there is just as unique as me."

Davis said there are 650 Tire Pros locations in the country with 440 owners in more than 40 states. He said he believes his shop was the first Tire Pros in Ohio.

For Russ Boughman, Discount Tire Outlet is his legacy.

"His story is the business, where he's come from and where it's been," said his wife, who notes their strong faith has guided decisions and kept their business strong.

Every beam of the new construction bears a Bible verse, she said.

While Tom and Melissa Davis are much more spontaneous and adventurous than her parents, they share the same faith philosophy. The couple said the idea to create the new spaces within the tire shop was God-given.

"We weren't really looking to expand," Tom Davis said, "We felt it was pressed into our hearts that this is the direction we needed to take."

More construction is slated for Discount Tire Outlet as soon as the weather breaks.

Davis said the next project involves some cleanup work in the older part of the facility to make it more energy efficient by lowering the ceiling and adding some walls and insulation.