A product management system and method for reading electronic identification tags from a vertical stack of tires. Each tire has an electronic identification tag secured at a position to operative to electronically transmit data to an antenna element positioned internally within a toroidal opening of each tire in the stack. An elongate read wand is positioned in a substantially vertical orientation within the aligned toroidal openings of the tires. The antenna element is carried by the read wand and is thus positioned by the read wand to receive an electronic transmission from each electronic identification tag in the aligned tire stack. The read wand may be ceiling-mounted, floor mounted, or hand held.