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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

#121

Post by syntaxing »

jbay808 wrote: post #60
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…

Misumi is awesome. It's basically Japan's answer to McMaster-carr. 10 years ago I would have said Misumi's website was better than MMC. Unfortunately Misumi has gotten a bit less usable over the past decade, while McMaster has improved. Misumi's paper catalogue is incredible though and I surprise myself to say I would rather browse it than either their or McMaster's website. Top quality configurable / customizable pa…

I think the most annoying thing about both sites is its weird ass names. Like it’s obvious that McMaster call certain things a certain way so that it’s less searchable elsewhere. Misumi takes this to a whole new level.

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

#122

Post by Mistletoe »

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…

Maybe your customers or employer would like you to save 2, 3, 5, 10x the price…

My memories of McMaster from doing my hobbies is that it is outrageously expensive.

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

#123

Post by macintux »

Wherever possible, I vastly prefer to buy online from a company who actually:

A) Understands what they’re selling

Really, there is no B, except for another feature that’s made it easier to buy from retail sites: Apple Pay.

Apple Pay on websites has made it much easier to buy from companies where I won’t drop by often enough to warrant creating an account. One-click checkout without the Amazonian death by a thousand cuts.

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

#125

Post by wildzzz »

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…

Mil spec part numbers for things like screws are great! We needed a very long screw in a specific style and material that no one stocked. We pulled up the mil spec datasheet for that style of screw, made up the part number based on our needs, and sent it to our fastener vendor. We get back exactly what we designed for without having to spend time designing our own special purpose screw. The vendor already has the spec so we can just point to exactly what we want and none of us have to spend time going back and forth to find a compromise.

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

#126

Post by DrudgeCorporate »

Mistletoe wrote: post #122
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…

Maybe your customers or employer would like you to save 2, 3, 5, 10x the price… My memories of McMaster from doing my hobbies is that it is outrageously expensive.

Time is money and buying from McMaster has always been faster and easier than any other site. I also have yet to get an incorrect item.

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

#127

Post by TaylorAlexander »

Mistletoe wrote: post #122
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…

Maybe your customers or employer would like you to save 2, 3, 5, 10x the price… My memories of McMaster from doing my hobbies is that it is outrageously expensive.

It depends on what you need. For basic metric nuts and bolts it seems to be the same price as a local hardware store but I don’t have to leave my office to buy the stuff.

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

#128

Post by DaveExeter »

lvl102 wrote: post #17

It’s overpriced. I rather order from Misumi or Accu.

McMaster is only overpriced if you are spending your own money! :-)

If you are spending your own money you might find other suppliers offer more value.

McMaster-Carr

Grainger

...and there are a few more.

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

#129

Post by wildzzz »

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…

I like buying auto parts from RockAuto. Their website is dead simple to use. They have nice features like good/better/best, showing the most popular item of that category for that car, an icon for OEM parts, and another icon that shows items in the same warehouse as the item in your cart. So when you can't decide between a dozen brands of sparkplugs, you can pick one that is both OEM and is in the same warehouse as the air filter you needed so you only have to pay for one shipping cost.

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

#130

Post by octoberfranklin »

I really wish DigiKey would fire their web team and have McMaster's web team run their site.

DigiKey's website has gone downhill so dramatically the past five years or so... it's astonishing. Random failures, login attempts just redirect back to their homepage, horizontal scrollables inside of vertical scrollables (?!?!!), and that new filtering scheme that has javascript that grays-out/disables options randomly in response to you moving your mouse the wrong way. WTF.

Please DigiKey, learn from McMaster. Your website is junk, kill it with fire and start over. I love everything else about Digikey.

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