Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bedelstein.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 501 posts

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

#81

Post by eropple »

xen2xen1 wrote: post #78
ISL wrote: post #62

McMaster 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…

Please tell me there's a story behind an "industrial tricycle?"

It's really a thing they sell. https://www.mcmaster.com/tricycles/ The why, though, no idea. Warehouse schlepping, probably?

On the other hand, I take one look at this mostly-prefabricated building and I'm like "...I could use one of those." https://www.mcmaster.com/6704T998/

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

#82

Post by johnwalkr »

jbay808 wrote: post #66
soneil wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Misumi has stock in Germany, although a few times I have ordered stuff to Europe that is “in stock” that is in fact not.

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

#83

Post by fmajid »

xadhominemx wrote: post #36
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.

Compared to Amazon, MMC has a very small number of SKUs, inventory that never goes stale, and prices that are only affordable in the context of B2B transactions. It’s not a comparable service.

And also zero counterfeit products that will burn down your house.

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

#84

Post by johnwalkr »

dwiel wrote: post #63
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?

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?

You just need a digikey approved monitor to fit the table[1].

[1] https://displaysolutions.samsung.com/monitor/detail/1264/C49...

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

#85

Post by fmajid »

The counterpoint to this is that a site like Amazon can still succeed to dominate the industry despite being a horrendous mess with nonfunctional search, a horrendous counterfeiting problem, and widespread review fraud. Does take the wind out of the sails of IA/UX purists somewhat.

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

#86

Post by version_five »

aidenn0 wrote: post #79
talkingtab wrote: post #39

Another vote for McMaster-Carr. It is not like they are great, they just are not stupid or frustrating or annoying at all. I don't know of any other websites that meet that relatively simple standard. Perhaps part of why their website is so good is because they deliver the goods. They follow through. Ever need a 4x8 sheet of copper? It gets delivered to your front door. Sooner than you expect, and at a very fair pric…

Yeah. It's kind of like how in chess, many learners study openings and gambits and obscure checkmates, when the low hanging fruit is just learning to spot and avoid blunders. MMC is mostly about not making the mistakes everybody else makes, which puts it near the top even before you consider what they do well.

I think everyone knows what the "mistakes" are, it's just that its en vogue to "hate your customers" the way amazon and similar companies do, racing to the bottom to squeeze money out of them with dark patterns instead of just charging more for good service

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

#87

Post by thechao »

iancmceachern wrote: post #34

Mechanical Engineer and product designer here. I've been using mcmaster daily for 20 years to do my job. It is definitely the standard by which all others are judged. I'll gladly pay 2, 3, 5, even 10x the price to get it from McMaster. The service, the CAD models, I have what I need the next day. As an example of the level of their service, you can send them a box of loose parts, no part numbers, no markings, and the…

We had piles of their yellow books laying around the house when I was a grad student. Definitely good toilet-book material.

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

#88

Post by haroldskavar »

eropple wrote: post #81
xen2xen1 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please tell me there's a story behind an "industrial tricycle?"

It's really a thing they sell. https://www.mcmaster.com/tricycles/ The why, though, no idea. Warehouse schlepping, probably? On the other hand, I take one look at this mostly-prefabricated building and I'm like "... I could use one of those." https://www.mcmaster.com/6704T998/

Boeing, other large industrial plants.

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

#89

Post by Maarten88 »

syntaxing wrote: post #49

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 bo…

> being able to buy a custom “off the shelf” part without making a special internal part number

How does that work? I have been searching the internet for stainless steel M8 x 20 set screws with a torx socket, maybe uncommon but straightforward. I have yet to find these anywhere outside of having them manufactured in china by truckload - I need maybe 100.

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

#90

Post by guywithahat »

fmajid wrote: post #85

The counterpoint to this is that a site like Amazon can still succeed to dominate the industry despite being a horrendous mess with nonfunctional search, a horrendous counterfeiting problem, and widespread review fraud. Does take the wind out of the sails of IA/UX purists somewhat.

I feel like the part everyone is ignoring is that McMaster sells a very small breadth of things with incredible depth in its selection. The features people are raving about in this article and thread only make sense in the context of selling bolts for industrial use, and could never be implemented at a place like Amazon.
Post reply on HN