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

391–400 of 501 posts

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

#391

Post by zrobotics »

situationista wrote: post #374
hownottowrite wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DDP is probably the only good solution here for most EU customers, but frankly the hassle and expense of doing business in the EU is what keeps most US e-commerce companies from entering the market.

I tried googling DDP but couldn't find it - do you know the URL?

It is a shipping term, it stands for deluvered duty paid. Basically, customs duties are paid by the shipper and the item is delivered directly to the customer. From a logistics perspective it is a massive PITA, but for DTC sales in the EU it's the preferred option.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/delivery-duty-paid.asp

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

#392

Post by RicoElectrico »

NavinF wrote: post #228
RicoElectrico wrote: post #208

I was very confused when Ben Krasnow pronounced McMaster with a "mick" at the beginning. For 10+ years of my English education nobody bothered to explain that Mc is "mack", but sometimes it's pronounced "mick". I was aware something is going on when Tyler McVicker introduced himself with "mick". English teachers usually have a typical repertoire of their pet details like schwa and so on, but seems there's a blind spo…

Hmm isn't McMaster pronounced just like McDonald's?

Apparently this varies. Adam Savage does not pronounce it with "mick".

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

#393

Post by bluGill »

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/

When a factory is a couple km long in either direction and a machine breaks the mechanics need to get their tool boxes there fast and safe. While street truck could be used (and often they are), a because of people walking around the top speed is no higher, and the trike is more maneuverable and so overall is faster than a truck.

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

#394

Post by zxcvbn4038 »

oriolid wrote: post #281
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's kind of sad that Aliexpress is better in this regard.

I’ve had mostly good experiences with Aliexpress though you have to read the fine print on everything very carefully - I think most people would have a lot of problems with that. There have been a few times I ordered electronic components and received ladies handbags or, hilariously, a toddler size leather miniskirt. I did get a refund in all those cases but it was a multi week process.

I did think it was pretty funny that the same tweezers CVS sells for $7 a piece in midtown Manhattan costs 5/$1 on Aliexpress. Only difference is the CVS tweezers are available immediately whereas I had to wait 20 days to receive the ones from Aliexpress - though I more or less have a lifetime supply now. :)

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

#395

Post by yardie »

sydd wrote: post #323
stdbrouw wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often use Conrad for its huge collection of small parts (mechanical as well as semiconductors) most of which can be ordered individually, with an interface with lots of filters and easy access to manuals and data sheets. Sometimes their categorization is a bit off, and they don't have CAD files, but it's decent enough.

Conrad is a shitshow in my country. - Almost nothing is on stock, most items have 10+ weeks backorder time. - Ridiculously expensive, its common to find 2x prices than in other shops. - Full with Chinesium crap (but some high quality items too), one can never be sure what they will get. Its like a shitty Aliexpress

LOL. I discovered Conrad before I found out about AliExpress. I thought AE was a shitty Conrad with much better pricing but slower delivery.

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

#397

Post by phasetransition »

tomcam wrote: post #132
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…

> you can send them a box of loose parts, no part numbers, no markings, and they'll go through it, figure out what's what, and refund you for it That is insane. Mad props to them

I'm sure they have internal horror stories of the practice, but they do it.

When we sold an old company to a PE group, all the McMaster loose stuff in the warehouse went back to them stacked in boxes on a pallet for them to work through. I wouldn't be surprised to learn our CM did the same thing after the sale.

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

#398

Post by bluGill »

wildzzz wrote: post #129
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 t…

I used to. Then I bought a part that didn't fit (a switch that obviously didn't have the right number of terminals), and the return process turned me off.

I still check them though as they often have good enough parts for a lot less than OEM prices. Though I also still go to the OEM when I get tired of third party parts that don't work (after the switch issue above I went to my local auto parts store - the switch fits but doesn't work, I'll see what the OEM part does. Rock auto was $8, local store $20, deal $140 - but I trust the dealer switch will work for another 20 years)

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

#399

Post by yardie »

jsjohnst wrote: post #353
dagw wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because the site is hard-coded for the US imperial system? Why not go to the site and take a look. They, obviously, sell both metric and imperial bolts (and everything else). It's not like Americans don't occasionally need metric bolts.

> It's not like Americans don't occasionally need metric bolts. It’s becoming a lot more common than not in fact. Automobile industry for example is pretty heavy on using metric bolts / screws. It’s not a recent thing either, a 2004 F-250 I used to have had many (most?) bolts as metric.

This only helps the tool makers. I wrench on Japanese and European cars yet every toolset comes with Metric and SAE sets. It seems to only inflate the parts count without giving you more functionality. The SAE and Metric bits are practically interchangeable.

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

#400

Post by talkingtab »

ISL wrote: post #99
aidenn0 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

+1 for "self-selects" for the right kind of customer. Self-selecting is interesting. Mine was a need, not a hobby, it was not a luxury. And like the original post pointed out, there was no need to convince me to buy. So I wonder if there needs to be another Amazon, one that it focused on those customers who "need" something?

Also, my own experience was that I did not pay a "premium". I really did need 1/2 sheets of copper on a regular basis. I could get small pieces at a premium. I could get larger sheets by driving for a hour or ... I could pay about the same total cost or less and get them delivered to my door... This was not limited to a few items. I needed plastic bags, about quart size. Again I got just functional bags - not shoddy at all - at a very reasonable price. The same things at amazon would have been a) not functional or b) impossible to find among all the shoddiness.

Post reply on HN