Mcmaster.com is also insanely fast. The reaction to every click is so incredibly responsive. There is something so pleasing about it.
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
#62McMaster is a great choice when you can value your time.
There is no comparison shipping. You need an industrial tricycle that gets the job done? Great. Add an industrial tricycle to your cart. Unless there is a meaningful difference between models, there will be only one choice. It will be curated and it will do what you generally expect it to do.
You'll pay more than you can get it for elsewhere, but it will do the job and it will arrive on time.
That's McMaster's value proposition. It is often a very good one.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#63digikey, 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?
I wish digikey was as good as McMaster. With digikey I often have to parse through a huge table with many pages to figure out what the difference is between a bunch of search results. On McMaster you can clearly see search results categorized in sub tables and densely arranged to make clear what the options are.
Are there any electronics websites that actually organized like McMaster?
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#64Great website. Great company. Can't find what you're looking for? Website failing you? Don't worry, just click the email link at the top of the page and they WILL get back to you - even over a 20 cent part.
I've never emailed them but I have called them on a few occasions. Somehow they pick up before it even rings once. And it's a real person, not a phone tree. Pretty remarkable.
Call center software does the job of picking up
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#65McMaster 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…
You can get same day in some areas. We usually get next day in Reno.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#66I often hear about McMaster from US sources and how great it is (though you pay for convenience), but are there equivalents in Europe? France in my case.
Farnell is my nearest equivalent (in Ireland). Same "why doesn't everyone ship like this" experience, but more electrical than mechanical. I'm in the same boat as far as looking for a MMC equivalent (they refuse to ship here at all)
You could perhaps try Misumi. They were happy to ship to me in Canada when McMaster would not.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#67I normally browse HN incognito on my phone but had to go to my desktop and login to say this: I fucking love MMC and their website. I got into woodworking during the pandemic and eventually built a loft bed for my son. I needed some very specific sizes of furniture bolts in small quantities and Amazon just didn't have what I needed. McMaster-Carr to the rescue! I agree that they aren't the cheapest, but the quality i…
I have never noted a gender disparity among colleagues who use McMaster. Everyone likes it just fine.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#68Earlier 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. 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 p…
I’m absolutely sure that there is an amazon FIFO for orders that sometimes get delayed days in shipping in order not to build up an unnecessary queue that wouldn’t get emptied for pickup. Probably has a lot to do with them running their own logistics.
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#69[deleted]
Re: Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
#70Great website. Great company. Can't find what you're looking for? Website failing you? Don't worry, just click the email link at the top of the page and they WILL get back to you - even over a 20 cent part.
They are really fast to get back to you and will tell you what stuff is which can be helpful in certain situations where the material or vendor might matter.