How do you get 'fresh' tires at Costco?

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I was at Costco in the morning, wanted to have a word with tire folks about tire 'freshness'. I mentioned it to the guy that I would prefer tires not to be less than 6 months old. The guy says, there is no way I can put such restriction on the tires they install as they do not have a choice to pick and choose the tires. They use the tires supplied by the supplier. They don't check the mfg date of the tires.

He mentioned that in his 20+ years of working in this business, he has not come across that fresh tires often. I am pretty sure he is BSing. It is a common practice at our local Costco. (one of the other guys told me that the interstate batteries they sell are made by interstate when I asked if they are Johnson controls or some other one). In my experience, Costco store manager (at least our local one) is not exactly helpful.

I wonder how do you make sure that you get fresh tires at Costco if you decide to buy there?

Thanks in advance.
 
If it's a common tire brand and size, it's probably pretty fresh. They do a lot of volume.
 
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He is right, they are stuck with whatever they are sent. I have ordered tires before from a supplier and asked for a newer date code per a customer request and I was told I will get whatever they pull based on what they are sent.
 
Originally Posted by Wolf359
If it's a common tire brand and size, it's probably pretty fresh. They do a lot of volume.

I agree. With their volume you're getting at least reasonably fresh tires (or batteries).
 
Most date codes are so small I doubt the stoner that pulls the tire off the shelf can even read it let alone determine which one is "more fresh".
 
Costco does move a lot of tires - if you go with that they stock in store. The tires I've gotten installed were within two months of production.

They also go straight to Michelin or Bridgestone as well, they don't deal with a 3rd party distributor.
 
any time I put tires on my cars at Costco they are within 2 months old; Always happy with our local Costco
 
Originally Posted by MoneyJohn
I would prefer tires not to be less than 6 months old.



Why would you only want tires older than 6 months of age?
 
I get it, we all want tires that rolled off of the factory floor yesterday, were delivered this morning and installed on our cars this afternoon.

And yes, seven or more year old tires (or some age like that) tend to go bad. But, we all generally put enough miles per year that after 5 or 6 years the tires are worn and we replace.

My guess is that most tires sold aren't much more than a year old from date of manufacture, if that. We are overthinking all of this.
 
Originally Posted by heynow
Originally Posted by MoneyJohn
I would prefer tires not to be less than 6 months old.



Why would you only want tires older than 6 months of age?


If he's going to keep them on the vehicle for 10 years because he doesn't drive much....the fresher the better.
 
It's easier to BS a customer than to actually do your job. I have had them claim the warranty is invalid when the manufacture date was nine months past 60 month. Their policy says "warranty is valid for sixty (60) months from the date of purchase".

Ask a manager, if they don't follow up, report to corporate.
 
Judging by the crowds at all the Costco's that I have been to and the overwhelming amount of stuff the employees have to do to keep up with the basic demands of their jobs, it doesn't surprise me that you are being brushed off. I believe the managers aren't too concerned with a few scattered tire/battery buyers taking their business elsewhere over a tire date that is perfectly reasonable and probably far fresher than anywhere else you could go. They probably wonder what kind of weasel is wasting their time in hassling them over a product that isn't meant for human consumption and don't see why a few days or weeks of shelf time could possibly be pertinent. Next time I go to Best Buy I am going to demand the television with the newest date of manufacture.
 
With the huge matrix of manufacturers, sizes, and types of tires, I think it's quite difficult for a tire dealer other than Tirerack to keep a decent stock of tires and to keep it fresh. Costco seems to handle it by only offering Michelin and Bridgestone. And even then they don't offer all the different tires Michelin makes.
 
Costco is not a tire company. In fact, their tire business is very low margin (sometimes even a loss leader similar to the $5 chickens).
They are very selective in what they carry; they are volume only.
One of the reasons they sell tires so low and install so low is they want customers in the store during the installation process.

I worked with a finance guy who worked for Costco; he explained a lot of the numbers they run on. Prices, products, etc. are all set for a reason.
Vendors have to give a lot to get their products in Costco.
 
The build date is the year and week of manufacture. For example 1426 would be the last week of June 2014.
Unless you're buying an odd ball size, for reasons members have already posted, Costco tires are going to be as fresh as anywhere.

Where one needs to be careful about build dates is buying used tires, or ones from discount racks at places like Canadian Tire.
No matter how good the deal is, you don't want to buy 5 year old new tires, or 10 year used ones.

Often on motor homes, boat trailers etc, tires will age out long before they wear out.

Watch your spare tires too. You could have a brand new 15 year old tire that could fail in a few miles.
 
Originally Posted by ethnix
It's easier to BS a customer than to actually do your job. I have had them claim the warranty is invalid when the manufacture date was nine months past 60 month. Their policy says "warranty is valid for sixty (60) months from the date of purchase".

Ask a manager, if they don't follow up, report to corporate.


I had a tire kingdom put the wrong mileage on the invoice during a tire purchase making the road hazard warranty much less. Noticed a week later and had them correct it.
 
Just a funny related story. I purchased two close out rear Goodyear high performance tires from TireRack (at a discount). Hard the tires installed at Discount Tire.

last week a TPMS sensor went bad. Bought a OEM replacement and had Discount Tire install. They did a pre installation inspection, and noted the goodyear tires were almost six years old. Bought five year old (new) tires from tireRack.

I think Costco gets them straight from the distributor. Unless you are buying some rare/ unpopular size- Costco likely is a reatailer who has some of the newest manufacturer tires. And since they don't sell anything but top brands- an overall win, regardless of date of manufacture.
 
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