> McMaster Carr, a company worth a little over a billion, sells metal, bolts, casters, and many other industrial bits and bobs. Their website is infinitely better than Amazons
I’ve bought a few dozen things from McMaster. For very competent people who know precisely what they want it is good, but I do find I spend an hour looking at the specs of “doodad” which will almost meet my needs when I stumble onto “doodaddy” which is a better fit. After I buy it, a friend points out they sell “doodada” which is even better.
Note I’m an engineer, but didn’t study in North America, so the names of things are different.
McMaster is terrible for product discovery, you have to know the precise name of the thing you want.
For the average person on the street Amazon is better.
I find McMaster awesome for product discovery. I can go and just start scrolling, see a interesting category and start digging into what is there. How on earth is Amazon better for this? Instead of just scrolling down and starting to click I have to open the side menu, expand categories, click on industrial & scientific, click on show all, get smacked in the face by a full page add, and then I get a nonsensical mix of lists of categories, new products, then back to a list of categories to hopefully get to where I want to go.
You need help finding something? On McMaster, scroll down, click contact and send a message. On Amazon? Google to find out where the shortest path to getting assistance that they have buried under a dozen submenus.
I will admit, there is one superior thing for product discovery, which is of course their paper catalog.
I’ve bought a few dozen things from McMaster. For very competent people who know precisely what they want it is good, but I do find I spend an hour looking at the specs of “doodad” which will almost meet my needs when I stumble onto “doodaddy” which is a better fit. After I buy it, a friend points out they sell “doodada” which is even better.
Note I’m an engineer, but didn’t study in North America, so the names of things are different.
McMaster is terrible for product discovery, you have to know the precise name of the thing you want.
For the average person on the street Amazon is better.