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Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

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Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#41

Post by iancmceachern »

pGuitar wrote: post #14
fake-name wrote: post #5

McMaster is great. This article is also completely glossing over another reason to use them: Their shipping is somehow insanely fast. Almost everything is next-day delivery, even for standard shipping. They've somehow got their logistics COMPLETELY nailed. I believe they have their own agreements with USPS/FedEx/etc... McMaster is generally not the cheapest, but they're almost always the fastest and the easiest. Mach…

> Almost everything is next-day delivery, Could it be that you live next to one of their warehouses? On the other hand, Amazon delays orders on purposes if you aren't a Prime member.

No, they have next day shipping to the whole US.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#42

Post by bsder »

fake-name wrote: post #5

McMaster is great. This article is also completely glossing over another reason to use them: Their shipping is somehow insanely fast. Almost everything is next-day delivery, even for standard shipping. They've somehow got their logistics COMPLETELY nailed. I believe they have their own agreements with USPS/FedEx/etc... McMaster is generally not the cheapest, but they're almost always the fastest and the easiest. Mach…

> They've somehow got their logistics COMPLETELY nailed.

In addition, you can generally get a useful human on the bloody phone at these companies!

The delivery priority is because their customers are losing real money until that shipment of parts to repair their production line comes in. If those parts don't come in when they're supposed to, the people who cut checks are gonna start yelling.

However, I tend to prefer MSC (https://www.mscdirect.com/) over McMaster if I can--especially for machine tooling.

It really feels like McMaster really relies on the fact that they can be a "one stop shop" so my experience has been that things tend to be slightly more expensive and with "servicable" quality and with "very good" delivery. However, with a bit of Internet-Fu, you can generally find a better version of the McMaster product at the same price point.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#43

Post by spfzero »

motoboi wrote: post #9

Now be completely honest: - If you haven't read the article, would you think this site great? My point is: no one knows what is a great e-commerce website. Is one that sells a lot? Amazon does it. Is not one that sells a lot, but that is very easy to use?

I haven't read the article, and I think the site is great. I've used it many times and it exemplifies what I think a great e-commerce site should be (from a customer perspective). They've built their website so you can find and order what you need with the bare minimum of effort. If I imagine trying to search for some of the things I order on McMaster, except on Amazon, let's just say I'm glad I don't have to.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#44

Post by gruez »

pGuitar wrote: post #14
fake-name wrote: post #5

McMaster is great. This article is also completely glossing over another reason to use them: Their shipping is somehow insanely fast. Almost everything is next-day delivery, even for standard shipping. They've somehow got their logistics COMPLETELY nailed. I believe they have their own agreements with USPS/FedEx/etc... McMaster is generally not the cheapest, but they're almost always the fastest and the easiest. Mach…

> Almost everything is next-day delivery, Could it be that you live next to one of their warehouses? On the other hand, Amazon delays orders on purposes if you aren't a Prime member.

>On the other hand, Amazon delays orders on purposes if you aren't a Prime member.

I'm not so sure about this. I'm not a prime member and I frequently get orders delivered before the estimated delivery date. On the other hand I also see instances where amazon takes suspiciously long to ship something. A charitable explanation might be that their logistics capacity (eg. planes or vans) is limited, so if you're not a prime member you get deprioritized.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#45

Post by maxerickson »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #23
pGuitar wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Almost everything is next-day delivery, Could it be that you live next to one of their warehouses? On the other hand, Amazon delays orders on purposes if you aren't a Prime member.

> On the other hand, Amazon delays orders on purposes if you aren't a Prime member. Sounds like a conflict of interest if they literally start transit then delay at some point. Like maybe retailers shouldn't be able to own shipping

They don't delay the shipping, they stick the entire order at a chosen point in their queue.

If you split the fulfillment off from the retailing, the fulfillment will still have a queue.

Should the government mandate first in first out or something, no ability to pay for priority?

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#46

Post by adhesive_wombat »

a-dub wrote: post #16

digikey, jameco, mcmaster, ingram... most of these online catalog parts houses have excellently functional websites. but like, even back in the day distribution warehouses had excellent terminal based inventory search and ordering interfaces over packet switched networks. anyone remember datanet?

RS, on the other hand, are so-so. The new JavaScript stuff looks shinier but still they don't surface out-of-stock status in the search which is infuriating when do many things are on long lead times.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#48

Post by s1artibartfast »

I love McMaster, but also want to give a shout out to their competitor, grainger.

Similarly excellent UI. One benefit that I take advantage of is free delivery to their local warehouse for in person pickup.

I don't know why more companies don't serve the customer with this.

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#49

Post by syntaxing »

MechE here as well. An alternative to McMaster is Misumi. Misumi is nice because you can order parts that are made to order (imagine a rod with the specific thread and length). No next day shipping like McMaster but being able to buy a custom “off the shelf” part without making a special internal part number is huge (so you don’t need drawings or anything). They’ll ship you a couple books like the signature yellow book from McMaster. They’ll even host a seminar explaining why “good engineers design, great engineers integrate” (really only true for the industry and not consumer tech).

Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used

#50

Post by giantg2 »

It's pretty good. On at least two occasions I've had to look in multiple categories for stuff that I wanted.

Sometimes they sell a bolt, but sometimes they don't carry the companion nut (when dealing with specific stuff like alloy or specialty breakaway nuts, etc).

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