Sears-Amazon program expands
Customers can buy tires online and have them installed at store
Shortly after Sears announced it would close dozens more stores, the ailing retailer has expanded a partnership with Amazon that could appeal to Bay Area residents who shop for tires online.
The “ship to store” collaboration allows people to buy any tires on Amazon and have them shipped to and installed at their local Sears Auto Center. On Tuesday, Sears announced it would expand the monthold
program to an additional 71 stores.
The program covers several Bay Area Sears Auto Centers, including Concord, Hayward, San Bruno and San Jose, as well as other northern California locations in Sacramento, Stockton, Merced, Modesto and Salinas.
“Customers are taking advantage of additional services during the tire installation process, such as oil changes and alignments,” Mike McCarthy, vice president and general manager of Sears Automotive, said in a post on Sears Holdings’ website on Tuesday. “We are meeting our 60- minute tire installation commitment and over 90 percent of the Amazon customers are new Sears Automotive customers.”
Sears has closed hundreds of locations in recent years as traffic to its Sears and Kmart stores has declined, and has plans to close dozens more. But the company has made efforts to offset fallen sales, such as selling its appliances on Amazon, including those integrated with Amazon’s Alexa platform.
As part of the tire shipto-store partnership, Sears will sell its DieHard brand of tires on Amazon, but other brands will also be available for shipping and installation.