AmazonSupply.com

[Vinko]

Have you seen it?

http://www.amazonsupply.com

Forbes mentions they’re going after Grainger. I would suspect that McMaster-Carr would be a different animal altogether for Amazon to compete with. I’d also suspect that reports of the demise of these industrial wholesale warehouses might be a bit exaggerated. At the very least it may well be a protracted battle:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoc...sale-slaughter-jeff-bezos-8-trillion-b2b-bet/

 

[G-force]

Oh I hope this is true. My prime account will be getting even more mileage.

 

[healing]

Grainger in my opinion has a good selection but way way over priced. Unless I need it today and they happen to have it I can always find it cheaper elsewhere shipped to my door.

 

[Vinko]

Grainger in my opinion has a good selection but way way over priced. Unless I need it today and they happen to have it I can always find it cheaper elsewhere shipped to my door.

I haven’t used Grainger in ages, but like MSC, they appear to have significant discounts if you have a particular kind of account. For MSC, it was about 35% or more, on a lot of stuff, about what you could get it for with the coupons they’d e-mail. McMaster, by contrast, doesn’t discount (that I know of -- corrections welcome!) -- but when I’ve compared McMaster with the steepest discount I could get from MSC, they were about the same.

 

[Outlawmws]

I bought 2 of 4 gears for my DP a while back from Amazon, the other two came from Eprey. all as cheap as I could find them...

 

[1982fxr]

I like a good deal as much as the next guy, but anyone remember in the late 90's when Best Buy went after all the small music retailers with loss leader pricing, etc?

Once the competition was out of business (and they were), selection went down and prices went up. Don't have to compete with competition that isn't there anymore. idk, just sayin. And yes i order from amazon but been thinking twice on it lately...

 

[RCStocker]

As a contractor I get 30 percent off from grainger. It will not be hard to beat them other than I can be there in 20 minuets if I really need something. I buy most things from wholesale houses. I never boy tools ther. They are an industrial supply house, not your local tool store. The will deliver to the north sea whwn others will not.

 

[zcbauer89]

I use McMaster whenever I can. I'm not really a huge Grainger fan. McMasters selection is excellent but shipping can hurt. With free shipping, which I'm assuming they will offer, Amazonsupply.com might be a winner.

 

[ADSR]

I hope grainger goes **** up.

Over priced a-holes that made all their money in the 80s and cant make it now in the days of the net.

 

[Chadwilliam1]

I like a good deal as much as the next guy, but anyone remember in the late 90's when Best Buy went after all the small music retailers with loss leader pricing, etc?

Once the competition was out of business (and they were), selection went down and prices went up. Don't have to compete with competition that isn't there anymore. idk, just sayin. And yes i order from amazon but been thinking twice on it lately...

I am as quilty as the next guy but I have started spending my money other places. I am spending less with amazon and more with tool topia and harry j Amazon is taking over everything.

 

[85FourEyedGT]

hmm dunno how i feel about this, never really used Grainger though, my company uses Mcmaster for everything

 

[nicksnothereman]

Have you seen it?

http://www.amazonsupply.com

Forbes mentions they’re going after Grainger. I would suspect that McMaster-Carr would be a different animal altogether for Amazon to compete with. I’d also suspect that reports of the demise of these industrial wholesale warehouses might be a bit exaggerated. At the very least it may well be a protracted battle:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoc...sale-slaughter-jeff-bezos-8-trillion-b2b-bet/

But amazon's prices usually ****. I guess the local stores do as well though but I can drive there, we got a grainger somewhere here I'm sure.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Just buy from Zoro Tools which is owned by Grainger.
24 Procell AA batteries 24.23 from Grainger, 5.69 from Zoro LOL

 

[theoldwizard1]

I took a quick look at AmazonSupply just now.

Has anyone ever heard of square/rectangular tubing called "Hollow Rectangular Bar"

Hollow - Bar. Sounds like an oxymoron to me !

 

[sonvolt]

We usually order from MSC, they have good pricing and discounts much cheaper that Grainger and McMaster. We have tried ordering from Amazon Supply and it was a DISASTER ! They sent us the wrong part 3 times, so in a manufacturing scenario with deadlines buying from them has not been a good experience, for personal use well I guess they are fine as long as you don't get too technical, I find that they leave out some of the finite info.

 

[Davefr]

Have you seen it?

http://www.amazonsupply.com

Yes, I've seen it and have been underwhelmed. They don't offer a fraction of what the other industrial distributer's stock.

Smallparts.com (who Amazon bought) was a tiny niche supplier. Amazon needs the breadth of offering of a Grainger, McMaster or MSC to be taken seriously in the B2B type market.

I think Grainger shot themselves in the foot for their militant policy of only selling to large businesses with corp. accounts. (ignoring small business)

 

[jakemac]

In the 90's, as an independent freelancer, I had to fight tooth and nail to get my local Grainger to sell to me. Then they treated me like dirt everytime I went in to spend money with them on overpriced merch. I make every effort to avoid them. Back then, I would go to the Star Sales store around the corner instead, if they had what I needed.

On the other hand, Zoro.com has always been a pleasure to deal with, they take Paypal and their prices are more reasonable. McMaster Carr has a great selection, but their prices are high and unless you pay for overnight shipping they are slow to ship. I've never used MSC, I'll have to check them out.

I may try the Amazon site, we'll see.

 

[jeffmoss26]

MSC is good in a pinch. McMaster is local to me so if I order anything I get it the next day..

 

[Kracin]

Have you seen it?

http://www.amazonsupply.com

Forbes mentions they’re going after Grainger. I would suspect that McMaster-Carr would be a different animal altogether for Amazon to compete with. I’d also suspect that reports of the demise of these industrial wholesale warehouses might be a bit exaggerated. At the very least it may well be a protracted battle:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoc...sale-slaughter-jeff-bezos-8-trillion-b2b-bet/

i hope so. it's about time somebody did something about the stupidly priced items on grainger and msc. why would anyone keep paying 25-30% markup for "fast" shipping. when amazon offers the same shipping options at regular prices on damn near anything.

 

[alex71]

amazon supply doesn't have **** for stock right now. that's the reason they are going to open it up to third party sellers soon. we are in the beta program.

 

[Kracin]

amazon supply doesn't have **** for stock right now. that's the reason they are going to open it up to third party sellers soon. we are in the beta program.

thats what a lot of people don't get about amazon. they are a huge shipper and online retailer, but they have such a massive and expansive selection because they don't try to stock every item possible. they do third party sales and make a ton of money off of never having to spend money on the space. they just help sell other peoples things on their site to generate more traffic and revenue on the things they do sell. free advertisement and gets people to the site even if they didn't want something that amazon stocks.


they may not have a ton of suppliers. but how many of grainger and msc and mcmaster's suppliers are going to tell amazon to **** off, they want to stay loyal to their current business partners. they all know how good amazon is at moving products, i don't think it will take longer before you'll be able to get everything from all of mcmaster, msc, and grainger all in one place. for cheaper.

 

[firebox40dash5]

I don't think I've ever mail-ordered from Grainger, and probably wouldn't unless I can't get it elsewhere. I think I get 10% off, and they're still obscenely expensive. Zoro is pretty OK though. Just bought 4 fire extinguishers (pair of 5s and 10s) from them for a hair over $200 shipped, and they showed up in like 2 business days.

If I need it fast, McMaster is reasonable for the most part, and I can order by like 5pm and have it the next morning for ground shipping. The shipping isn't exactly cheap, but I'd usually rather pay that on my whole order vs. paying out the nose for every item.

I don't really know why, but this seems like it's out of Amazon's niche to me. I guess it really isn't, since their niche is pretty much "huge volume, low margin, great service and fast shipping"... but the low-buck part isn't exactly their thing. Not where I'd look to buy 50 different <$1 items like hardware. Should be interesting to see how it works out for them though.

 

[atwageman]

Recently one of my Zoro orders was fullfied from 8 different locations from around the country. Got 8 different tracking numbers. I assumed my items shipped from 8 different Grainger stores. Lol.

 

[espyking83]

******* love Amazon. Bookmarked.

 

[Outlawmws]

"Open it up to third party sellers"

Amazon has always used third party sellers, even back when all they sold was books...

I don't think Amazon could care less about Granger or Mcmaster. Long term they are targeting a much bigger fish: Walmart.

Amazon probably has the most bleeding edge approach to selling anything, and its all about the technology. They are SO good at the technology and delivery; they also have Amazon Web Services, which is the largest Cloud service provider out there.

And its Amazon policy that they will sell anything...

I hear rumors they are getting ready to start their own delivery service so they can compete with UPS/Fed Ex and USPS, and cut their rates.

 

[Vinko]

We usually order from MSC, they have good pricing and discounts much cheaper that Grainger and McMaster.

When I priced out more than a few things (random materials, some equipment, and expendable stuff like tooling) I always found that even with the MSC discount of 35% it came close to McMaster’s regular price and all that time of pricing everything out put McMaster in the lead. Were there specific things that you found that MSC was beating McMaster on it. Granted, I haven’t compared in a few years, but at the time, I saw no savings -- unless it was one of those 40% deals on some of the Durham cabinets they had going about 6-7 years back that was on here. I priced out, too, for instance, a Palmgren (sp?) vice -- one of the larger models -- just a cheapie that we needed for a drill press. After all the discounts and hunting around, McMaster was still equivalent and maybe a bit cheaper than everyone else.

We have tried ordering from Amazon Supply and it was a DISASTER ! They sent us the wrong part 3 times, so in a manufacturing scenario with deadlines buying from them has not been a good experience,

This is what I was thinking too. That said, Amazon certainly (now) has learned a lot about warehousing and picking and packing and shipping but I assume that McMaster and MSC -- who’ve been doing that for a long time -- will be tough to beat.

 

[Mohawk Dave]

SNIP

Amazon probably has the most bleeding edge approach to selling anything, and its all about the technology. They are SO good at the technology and delivery; they also have Amazon Web Services, which is the largest Cloud service provider out there.

And its Amazon policy that they will sell anything...

I hear rumors they are getting ready to start their own delivery service so they can compete with UPS/Fed Ex and USPS, and cut their rates.

Being a techie, Amazon really is amazing. Their logistical engineers are beyond human.

And more power to them if they start a delivery service. In a free market, competition could/should be good.

And speaking of delivery services, UPS spent big money on an algorithm for their routes to have the trucks make as many right turns and as few left turns as possible. Can you imagine how much frikin time and fuel that saved!?!

 

[Vinko]

Yes, I've seen it and have been underwhelmed. They don't offer a fraction of what the other industrial distributer's stock.

Smallparts.com (who Amazon bought) was a tiny niche supplier. Amazon needs the breadth of offering of a Grainger, McMaster or MSC to be taken seriously in the B2B type market.

They beat the PB Swiss prices to the ground when they took their stock over from small parts, IIRC

I think Grainger shot themselves in the foot for their militant policy of only selling to large businesses with corp. accounts. (ignoring small business)

What was the criteria for what constituted a small business? We were relatively small in the 80’s and we used them for various things like abrasives.

 

[Vinko]

McMaster Carr has a great selection, but their prices are high and unless you pay for overnight shipping they are slow to ship. I've never used MSC, I'll have to check them out.

I may try the Amazon site, we'll see.

No shill for Mcmaster, but maybe if you live in the one of the areas near one of their warehouses, you get next day (or same day if placed in the early AM) shipping on items. And shipping prices always seem pretty reasonable to me: $5-$7 for a box of stuff. Pretty good if you factor in your time to drive. That’s my experience at least.

 

[Vinko]

"Open it up to third party sellers"

Amazon has always used third party sellers, even back when all they sold was books...

I don't think Amazon could care less about Granger or Mcmaster. Long term they are targeting a much bigger fish: Walmart.

Interesting.

Amazon probably has the most bleeding edge approach to selling anything, and its all about the technology. They are SO good at the technology and delivery; they also have Amazon Web Services, which is the largest Cloud service provider out there.

And its Amazon policy that they will sell anything...

This is kinda what I was thinking. Re: technology. This somewhat famous blog post from a guy at google about Amazon and its “platform” and how everything is about the “platform” not the product or the service:

https://plus.google.com/+RipRowan/posts/eVeouesvaVX

I hear rumors they are getting ready to start their own delivery service so they can compete with UPS/Fed Ex and USPS, and cut their rates.

I wonder, for a few reasons, if this wouldn’t be their downfall -- or if downfall is totally over-the-top, then at least where they really run into problems.

 

[Vinko]

Being a techie, Amazon really is amazing. Their logistical engineers are beyond human.

One thing I don’t like -- and that was critiqued in the blog post I referenced -- is the layout of amazon.com home page. Everything and the kitchen sink. Maybe that works. But I’d take the simplicity of the google platform over it. (Obviously they are two very different things and have two different goals). Maybe it’s just aesthetics that I’m objecting too (but I don’t think so). Speaking of the Amazon look (and recalling that someone above mentioned Amazon was really after Walmart) it does kinda harken to a WalMart type of “look” doesn’t it?

I know it’s a different animal, but compare:

www.amazon.com

to

www.mcmaster.com

The latter has I think a brilliantly simple web design. It bridges the notion of a phone book with something very easy to search. I forget what you call that: where a previous type of technology is referenced in something new (like the older style iPhone iOS) but I always liked it. Probably for nostalgic reasons. I know that the newer iPhone iOS designers deliberately eclipsed that type of thing. (For example, when a smartphone clock still “looks” like a physical clock); There’s some term for it. But I can’t recall what it is

I am as quilty as the next guy but I have started spending my money other places. I am spending less with amazon and more with tool topia and harry j Amazon is taking over everything.

I hope there is always a place for Epstein’s

I think that if anything these smaller little outfits can offer something, in some sense, that these big places can’t. I’m seeing it in retail in the big cities -- though in those cases it’s aimed at people with a lot of disposable income that probably make their money at Amazon

 

[jakemac]

No shill for Mcmaster, but maybe if you live in the one of the areas near one of their warehouses, you get next day (or same day if placed in the early AM) shipping on items. And shipping prices always seem pretty reasonable to me: $5-$7 for a box of stuff. Pretty good if you factor in your time to drive. That’s my experience at least.

My comment wasn't about the travel time on the packages (that's out of their control). It was about the time it took for them to pull the order and hand it off to the shipper. Ground shipping from their warehouse to my door is typically 1-2 days, but they have taken up to 5 days to pull the order and ship it out. Unless I specified next day shipping. Other online companies I've ordered from typically pull and ship within 24hrs.

Still, I'd rather deal with McMaster before I'd even consider dealing with Grainger.

 

[Vinko]

An update:

Amazon Supply is no more. I know this is old news (or at least a few months old), but I remembered I'd started a thread on this when it started.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoc...business-marketplace-will-close-amazonsupply/

 

[Vinko]

Another update:

looks like the Amazon Supply link now goes to Amazon Business.

I'm not sure it's really any different from amazon.com (with some of the benefits of Amazon prime) except it may help record and account for business purchases or accommodate purchase order requirements and tracking that some business have, including taxes/reselling.

That said, to anyone who has signed up, is pricing really any different (despite the "exclusive pricing discounts claim)? I can't imagine selection is either more or less than the amazon.com platform.

Since all the printers in the shop are all the same, I'm finally able to order just one printer cartridge part no for all printers. And amazon beats Costco, Office Depot/Staples, etc. But I don't imagine that Amazon Business is any cheaper than Amazon.com or that if you were buying tooling like drill bits or the like, that it'd be any easier to navigate than the regular site. I know Amazon Supply had aspirations to be like McMaster but that didn't seem to work.

 

[QwikKotaTx]

Until Amazon supplies 3D CAD models with their parts I don't see McMaster going anywhere. They are a god send when doing assemblies in SolidWorks.

 

[b-dog]

Until Amazon supplies 3D CAD models with their parts I don't see McMaster going anywhere. They are a god send when doing assemblies in SolidWorks.

That's why I spend money with them. I'm a design engineer and for 1-off type jobs, plugging their models into my design means I don't bother shopping around. For big jobs, I just export the BoM, separate all the McMaster PN's, copy and paste them on McMaster's input field and order - takes all of about 2 minutes. 3D models are priceless for me.

 

[five9dak]

Their current UI is horrible if you are shopping for hardware you'd normally get on McMaster.

I love amazon and amazon prime, but still use mcmaster for hardware.

Ditto about the above for mechanical design work. I use their parts and models in my assemblies, saves me time and the company money.

 

[Ign]

I gave up on on the Supply the first time I used it, seemed identical to Amazon.com in terms of breadth & selection, so no need to visit the different web address.

I have no idea about Business but agree it's unlikely to differ in pricing. I do, however, go thru Smile because there is an incentive to do so - it benefits my favorite charity.

 

[tarbellb]

That along with McMasters organization and layout makes it superior to just about anybody out there. Cant tell you how many times Ive basically educated myself on a line of products/hardware by just visiting McMaster.

 

[QwikKotaTx]

That's why I spend money with them. I'm a design engineer and for 1-off type jobs, plugging their models into my design means I don't bother shopping around. For big jobs, I just export the BoM, separate all the McMaster PN's, copy and paste them on McMaster's input field and order - takes all of about 2 minutes. 3D models are priceless for me.

I also thought that was awesome that you could paste multiple part numbers even with description etc and the cart will populate. Unfortunately I also use Creo/Pro-E and have to download STEP files and cannot edit them easily. We have to buy most of our fasteners from Mil-Spec vendors as certs are required but nuts and washers all come from McMaster. Their Mil-Spec cross reference is also great.