Third-generation celebrates Jack's Tire 75th

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Troy Miller reached two milestones this year: He turned 60 and his family's tire dealership turned 75.

Jack's Tire & Auto Center Inc. is considered a mainstay in Chillicothe, a city of roughly 22,000 residents in south-central Ohio. It was founded in June 1947 by Clyde "Jack" Barnes, as Jack's Texaco, a full-service gas station that sold tires and auto repairs.

When Barnes died in 1964, his son — and Miller's stepfather — Charles "Jack" Barnes took over. Miller worked in the shop as a teenager and then worked full-time after high school.

Miller and his sister Debbie Fyffe took over running the business when Barnes died in 2014.

"I pretty much promised my dad on his deathbed that I would run the place to the best of my ability when he was passing away, … and I promised him I would make it to 75 years. And it's been a blink of an eye and here I am at 75 years.

"Now I got to consider what I want to do. I'm 60 years old. I'm surprised I'm even 60 years old."

Unfortunately, Miller said, he doesn't have a family member who wants to succeed him in running the dealership.

When his stepfather died, Miller said he had mostly worked out on the shop floor.

"I was not an office man hardly at all. I hardly knew anything about the office part. I stepped up and stepped right in and it's been a really good challenge. The only thing I can say is the good Lord took a liking to me," he said.

Today the dealership, a five-bay shop located down the street from the original site, sells mostly tires and offers brakes and alignment services.

The dealership moved into its current building, a former Sinclair service station on the corner of Paint Street, in 1970, but operated from both locations until 2007.

In 1974, the business was incorporated as Jack's Tire & Auto Center Inc. and stopped selling gasoline in the late 1980s.

Miller said the biggest challenges for the dealership was running the business during the gas rationing crisis of the 1970s and inflation in the early 1980s. Today, the dealership's biggest challenge is securing tires for its customers, he said.

About two-thirds of the dealership's revenues come from tire sales.

"My sales have been tremendously good," Miller said. "They have slacked off some this year. I've noticed a slack off this year but last year and the last four years before that, my sales were tremendously, really good."

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jack's Tire stayed open as an essential business because it services city and county government vehicles, police cruisers and emergency vehicles as Goodyear national accounts, he said.

The dealership is also a Big 3 Tire marketing group member and sells all major brands for consumer, commercial and farm customers.

"We have been a service to our community. We have always tried to take care of people in the surrounding area. We don't advertise a whole lot. Most of our advertisement around here is by word of mouth," Miller said.

He said his dealership is the only one in the area that offers a large inventory of commercial truck tires.

In addition to his sister and himself, the shop employs six and operates five days a week.

So what is the dealership's secret to longevity?

"Honesty. We don't lie to anybody. ... We have been here for so long, too. So I think that has a lot to do with it," Miller said.

"It's not so much quality, it's low price (that's important) in today's world," he said, noting that the shop has an inspirational sign on the wall that states: "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of the low price is forgotten."

Miller said part of the shop's goal to be honest with the customer is to list all the itemized charges for a tire purchase and alignment, rather than offering a free alignment and then hiking the price of the tires.

"That part of that honesty thing. You let people know what you provide."

His advice to other tire dealers:

• Always help others in need;

• Be honest with your customers; and

• Praise God every day for what you have.

Miller said he operates in a low-income community so he is always trying to help others. "Sooner or later people are going to need help."