471–480 of 501 posts
- However they've managed SEO, searches for their part numbers on normal search engines never have the part page as a result
- Searching for part numbers on their page only takes you to the series page for that part number, rather than the "Product Details" page for the part.
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It’s arguably similar to the value proposition Apple brings to a lot of their customers. Time is money, and having things just work the way they’re supposed to seems to get rarer and rarer. Or maybe I’m just getting older, I dunno. I wish we had more firms that still valued quality and proper customer service in this world. Too much chinesium junk out there these days, in a race to the bottom that everyone loses.
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And then there’s AliExpress… I’m not sure how it’s racist to use a portmanteau of “Chinese” and “aluminium” in reference to low quality goods manufactured in China. But going forward, I’ll keep in mind that it could be considered offensive.
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…
Central New Jersey: Same day shipping, cheaper than ground: Order before 11, get it after lunch.
Eek I'm going to go against the grain here a little. That site is useful when you already know what you are looking for. For someone who's just browsing for something interesting to buy it's terrible. Obviously it's been made for exactly that purpose and does it well but for general e-commerce it's bad. The retailers are looking to send you to an area of their website with "stuff" you are interested in. For example y…
No one is going on McMaster just looking for something interesting to buy. And frankly if you're not amazon, odds are people are trying to buy something specific from you as well.
"People visit McMaster-Carr with high intent to buy a specific part, that's it." Mcmaster is great, but it's important to point out there's no brand or product selection decisions. You pick your criteria and get exactly one option. It lends itself to a very different experience. How would this work for cars or couches or headphones?
It might not work, and it doesn't have to. McMaster isn't designed to be a highly competitive retail marketplace for the average consumer or the average consumer product. It's for people building things that already have a good idea of what they need. For the most part, if you need an 18mm long 1/4-20 flange head hex-socket grade-8 bolt in a black oxide finish, you don't care about having a ton of options from differ…
"People visit McMaster-Carr with high intent to buy a specific part, that's it." Mcmaster is great, but it's important to point out there's no brand or product selection decisions. You pick your criteria and get exactly one option. It lends itself to a very different experience. How would this work for cars or couches or headphones?
You never have to worry about it being junk, though. When I order fasteners, metal parts to be machined/used in fabrication, or just misc. supplies from McMaster-Carr, I know whatever supplier they are using will be high quality and the part won't be a counterfeit. It also seems that they tend to stick with US manufacturers if possible.
OMG I frikkin hate McMaster's navigation and comparison options. Their standardization is even quite sloppy, i.e. some screw vendors apparently include the head height in the length spec, and you don't find this out until your box of #2-56's show up for your precision fixture and are ~1mm too short. I always tolerated McMaster's crappy UX as just a symptom of how MEs are willing to tolerate more shaggery than CS type…
Go to the product detail and they show precise measurements and often CAD models of the part.
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…
Alas, for some reason they only cater to the US market and have no presence in the EU, for example. So while it is possible to order from them, it's rather inconvenient as you need to deal with customs/taxes. Digi-Key got this right: you can order DDP, which makes things quick & simple. Incidentally, I am amazed that they don't have a meaningful competitor in the EU. It seems most companies here are stuck in the 80s…