McMaster-Carr Catalogs

I ordered a coalescing filter and socket wrench adaptor at

For me, that is very special, indeed.

--Winston

I can beat that. I am 100 miles from the Atlanta warehouse. If I get an order in by 7:30 in the morning it is at my door by noon. Any order in by

I am also among the blessed few who has received a catalog for the past couple of years but I seldom use it. It is easier to use the web site and the catalog is just to big to make good bathroom reading. :-)

Yep, no sense losing sleep over a catalog :))

When I first started ordering from them I asked for a catalog. The salesperson asked if I had an old one (or how did I know what to order?). I answered that I had a three year old catalog liberated from someone else. She replied that McMaster-Carr considered that to be a current catalog. I kept on ordering occasionally and discovered their improved web site, and ordered a little more often. After about three years of ordering 4 or 5 times a year a catalog arrived, and a new one every year since. I have no D&B rating nor open account, just regular ordering. It paid off for them. When I began to build a new (large, complicated) house, I began ordering VERY regularly; the stack of receipts is now well over a foot thick, with a few of them running to several thousands. I might have turned elsewhere if I hadn't begun receiving catalogs.

As a side note, I have five or six people who get my superceded catalogs who have all seen the speed and quality I get from McM-C. A new generation of customers from one catalog recipient.

-- --Pete "Peter W. Meek"

I think Ned has it right: some threshold of total orders. I know they sent catalogs to me even when I told them I was somewhere between a one-man shop and a hobbyist. I later began ordering quite a high volume from them, but the catalogs began arriving while it was quite low, but long term and consistent.

BTW, I don't think that a couple of years is too long for them to decide if you are "their kind" of customer.

-- --Pete "Peter W. Meek"

If you have a fast Internet connection, their online catalog is as good (in some ways better) as the hard copy. It is easier to do searches; more words in the descriptions are indexed; more info (like CAD drawings) is available; illustrations are clearer (and magnifiable); prices are up-to-date; availability is known immediately; and the speed is acceptable. The only real advantage the hard catalog has, is that it is easy to leaf through it to discover things I never knew I couldn't live without. That MAY not actually be an advantage.

-- --Pete "Peter W. Meek"

I also do not see what's the big deal about these catalogs, other than the prestige factor. I can find anything that I need by asking here and browsing their online catalog.

Some folks are "online" and some folks are "hardcopy only."

Often you can tell the latter because there's a lot of muffled cursing inside their offices and the sound of computer keyboards being slammed into the walls.

Basically folks like us like to have pages to drool over. Strange I know but there it is. The real deal is that most of the GUIs for those online catalogs just plain suck.

Jim

And while I do have wifi networking in my home..balancing a cat and a laptop on my knees while sitting on the terlet tends to lessen the enjoyment of the browsing..and the pooping

Gunner

"Considering the events of recent years, the world has a long way to go to regain its credibility and reputation with the US." unknown