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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

#191

Post by repiret »

hardolaf wrote: post #54
xadhominemx wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

DigiKey eliminated everything except next day air for small packages some years ago because it was too expensive to have two different SKUs for shipping small orders in their system. B2B is weird.

I made a small order from Digi-Key last month and they offered UPS ground, FedEx ground and USPS. I don’t think I’ve ever not been offered budget shipping from them.

But B2B is weird. If I need my employer to ship me something that I’ll use next month, I am hard pressed to get them to ship slower than 2nd day air.

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

#192

Post by kortex »

williamscales wrote: post #166
guywithahat wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't love McMaster due to their insane over packaging and environmental issues, but this > McMaster sells a very small breadth of things with incredible depth in its selection. is not the case. They sell virtually anything anyone in an industrial environment could possibly be interested in. See other comments about "industrial trikes" and feel free to choose some arbitrary thing and try to find it there. This is t…

What's wrong with mcmaster's packaging? Every time I've ordered, it's been plastic ziplocks or carboard boxes in a main box stuffed with brown paper. That's about as minimal as you can get.

If you have a problem with that, well, I have some bad news about how commerce, medical, and industry go about wastage in general. Bought 1000' of foobar filler rod and only used 50'? Chuck the rest cause it'll cost more in labor to deal with the excess.

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

#194

Post by monstertank »

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…

Do they ship to Australia? Any idea if that is also comparable to Amazon delivery speeds?

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

#195

Post by elil17 »

wlesieutre wrote: post #182
xyzzyz wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Next time he’ll buy $20 worth of bolts and pay $80.

What's a good place for well priced bolts if I'm not worried about next day shipping but need them to not be made of pot metal?

Where are you finding pot metal bolts? Your best option should be anything from Ace/Home Depot/Lowes. The matte finish ones are zinc galvanized, that’s just the protective coating. They are made of carbon steel and are graded according to standards set by organizations like SAE.

Hardware stores will have grade 2 bolts for the most part (or the metric equivalents). These will be made with weaker steel and will be cut instead of cold rolled. If you’re doing something that needs more strength than that, you can get grade 5 or 8 bolts. These will be cold rolled from higher strength steel and may be tested with a penetrant dye to check for any fractures. You can get those at a hardware store or at many online stores. If you need more strength than that, you’re probably in an aerospace application and I recommend that you don’t ask for advice on HN.

If you’re buying a shit-load of bolts (like, more than a thousand of one kind of bolt), then you can go to a wholesale website.

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

#196

Post by elil17 »

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?"

My company owns one of these. I’ve never seen anyone use it but it’s there.

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

#197

Post by [deleted] »

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?"

[deleted]

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

#198

Post by rmm »

The inverse to this website being the Australian equivalent blackwoods[1] which is the worst website ever.

As you search I’m pretty sure it downloads the entire database of items after each key stroke. No standardised tags on things like bolt sizes ( try quickly find M20 grade 8.8 galv bolts).

just the worst!

[1] https://www.blackwoods.com.au/

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

#199

Post by jeromegv »

wildzzz wrote: post #94
gruez wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Whatever was going on in 2013 is likely not really relevant to how Amazon is operating in 2022. This stuff change drastically.

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

#200

Post by m-ee »

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #163
gjvc wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am increasingly wary of buying things that might be in this category from Amazon.

Amazon does much better then Wal-Mart, but in either case I’ve found the best experience is to only buy products being sold by Amazon or Wal-Mart directly. I love the idea of facilitating small businesses selling through Amazon and Wal-mart, but in practice the feature is just abused by fraudsters, scammers, and disaster profiteers. The few legit sellers on either platform often don’t deal well with customer inquirie…

They commingle inventory so buying directly from Amazon themselves doesn’t guarantee you anything.
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