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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

#451

Post by mycombacct »

mcnugget wrote: post #427
auxym wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems most companies here are stuck in the 80s and dedicate next to zero effort to their web ordering process. I'm so glad we can order from mcmaster here in canada, even though shipping is two days and usually min 30 USD even for tiny orders. All local industrial suppliers are truly stuck in the 80s. They have a paper catalog, without prices (if you're lucky you can get a PDF too). If you want prices, you have…

10/10 agree for Canadians McMaster Carr is a godsend. Can order random stock material and have it tomorrow and have a certificate telling me exactly what stuff is with a nice cad model. Their search is the best though, can write some half assed description of what I want and it'll just deisplay what I want. Their mobile website is garbage though.

not for long ;)

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

#453

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

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?

My go-to for stuff like this used to be SmallParts.com back when McMaster-Carr wouldn't sell to individuals (they do now). Amazon bought Small Parts and renamed it Amazon Supply. I haven't bought anything from them recently, but it's worth a shot.

Small Parts was amazing they specialized in, you got it, small components such as fasteners (you could get titanium screws if you needed them), small mechanicals such as tubing, solenoid valves, bearings, shafting, metal, etc. They were a prototyper's dream.

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

#455

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

Bolkan wrote: post #305
morcheeba wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll second that. I ordered an 8-foot-long aluminum bar for $25, which, at the time, was too long to ship with traditional shippers. So, a semi trailer showed up at my door. Shipping cost $8.

Might I ask what for?

8' is a standard length for metal bar. OP might just have been buying their normal increment.

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

#456

Post by bityard »

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…

I expect pronunciation largely boils down to regional and personal preferences.

The "Mac" prefix means "son of" and "Mc" is an abbreviation of that. The "a" is schwa and where I grew up, is pronounced with a short I, as "mick". But I have heard others pronounce it "mack". The McDonalds ads on TV and radio seem to try to split the difference by pronouncing it "meck".

It's also possible that some people go out of their way to say "mack" in an attempt to acknowledge and avoid the "mick" slur that was sometimes used in England and in the US against Irish and Scottish immigrants.

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

#457

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

bsder wrote: post #42
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…

> They've somehow got their logistics COMPLETELY nailed. In addition, you can generally get a useful human on the bloody phone at these companies! The delivery priority is because their customers are losing real money until that shipment of parts to repair their production line comes in. If those parts don't come in when they're supposed to, the people who cut checks are gonna start yelling. However, I tend to prefer…

One benefit McMaster gets is that they have so much stuff that they tend to be the first place you think of when you need some random item. A couple years back I had to build a prototype machine that would inspect wells and I needed 4" diameter clear PVC pipe. Went to McMaster, and of course it was there :-)

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

#458

Post by bityard »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #48

I love McMaster, but also want to give a shout out to their competitor, grainger. Similarly excellent UI. One benefit that I take advantage of is free delivery to their local warehouse for in person pickup. I don't know why more companies don't serve the customer with this.

I love having a Grainger within walking distance of my workplace because it means I can order some bearings (or whatever) and go pick them up on my lunch break. Grainger's prices are nothing amazing but sometimes the total purchase price ends up being less than all other options when you don't have to pay for shipping.

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

#459

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

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.

Huh? I order from Digikey all the time and usually I get my packages FedEx because it's the same price as USPS. When USPS is cheaper, I select that because I'm in the same state so it typically gets here the next day anyway.

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

#460

Post by bityard »

eight_ender wrote: post #167

I’d like to add RockAuto as a peer to McMaster. It’s auto parts, and somehow uglier than McMaster, but damn if it isn’t the fastest no nonsense website I’ve seen for parts. I can drill down to a specific part for a specific car in seconds, and see pics of the product, part numbers, specs. It’s lovely.

Rockauto is one of my favorite things in the world. The site is a perfect case study in how to make a UX that's ugly as sin but has evolved to be a million times more usable than anything the "minimal sleek modern UX" crowd could ever come up with.

You always roll the dice with aftermaket parts of course, but my experience has been that they usually don't sell utter crap like you'll find on Amazon and eBay. They make some effort to verify that the parts are not bottom-of-the-barrel because they don't want to deal with returns and after all, they are car people themselves.

My favorite thing that I like to tell people that have not heard of RockAuto yet: I can buy a full of wiper blades for my two cars for about the same price as ONE mid-quality wiper blade at Walmart.

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