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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

#91

Post by bigyikes »

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?

I was thinking the same. Digikey, Mouser, etc. are great, but their websites don’t give me the same confidence that McMaster does. There’s always a fear in the back of my mind when browsing these electronics sites, wondering if the part I’m looking for slipped through the cracks of my filters.

When filtering McMaster on the other hand, I have absolute confidence that I will find the part I’m looking for, assuming it is stocked. It’s really intuitive and robust. I’m sure much of this can be chalked up to the fact that McMaster has a much smaller and more specific catalog, but still.

EVERY online retailer should take notes on how McMaster is able to create psychological safety when browsing. It’s a real peace of mind, as strange as that may sound.

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

#92

Post by avianlyric »

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/

Looks like they would be very useful on large industrial site with multiple buildings. Provide staff with bikes to get around, and cargo tricycles if they need to move small to medium loads.

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

#93

Post by ISL »

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 has come up when we've played the "McMaster Game" at our office, in which we attempt to guess random things that McMaster might or might not have.

Interesting things they have had in the past include basketball hoops (in a kit, ready to go, for all your "our institution needs a basketball court... today" needs) and a urinal.

But yes, there are real uses for industrial tricycles -- need to move some stuff (or a person) pretty far pretty quickly inside a warehouse? Industrial tricycle.

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

#94

Post by wildzzz »

gruez wrote: post #44
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. 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…

At my college town around 2013, any prime delivery would always take a day longer than it was supposed to. Saturday delivery wasn't common there at the time so you had to get your order in by Wednesday morning at the latest otherwise you'd be waiting until Monday.

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

#96

Post by CobaltFire »

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?"

We use these in military aviation across the world. Stupidly useful when you’ve got 100+ lbs of tools to run out to a down aircraft that needs fixed to make a mission.

Also in shipyards, for similar reasons.

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

#98

Post by goblinux »

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?"

Big adult size tricycles with a cargo basket or saddle bags. I’ve seen them used in big factories/plants for maintenance crews.

Something breaks and the maint guy hops on, loads up his toolbox and cycles out across the plant to go fix it.

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

#99

Post by ISL »

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.

McMaster's pricing and structure also self-selects for the right kind of customer -- customers who are willing to pay a reasonable premium for quality, speed, and customer service.

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

#100

Post by walrus01 »

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…

mcmcaster carr is also extremely popular in the hobby drone building market for buying bolts/nuts/fasteners/standoffs to attach circuit boards (ESCs, flight controllers, etc) to carbon fiber plate, and for attaching cnc cut carbon fiber plate piece together to build the whole frame of a small UAV.

people in the film/tv/production industry also use them to buy various fasteners and hardware for rigging lights, microphones, building complex camera systems onto gimbal platforms, etc.

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