McMaster Catalog Gloat

| Anyway, I asked one of the sales people for a catalog. It arrived | just before Christmas, No. 110. The book has EVERYTHING! A lot more | fun to thumb through than the web site. | | Pete Keillor

Personally, I also like the paper catalog, for assorted old-fashioned and practical reasons, but it's also out on a CD, which takes up a whole lot less room and is searchable.

Their website is great, with an excellent search function, but it isn't like thumbing through the catalog ("Dang, I didn't know they had those!").

Pete Keillor

Anyone got it on CD and wanna eMail it to me? I've got a site that will accept up to 1 GB files for eMailing...

Hmm, I wonder if #111 is on the way, so they're giving away all the leftovers. I may have to order something from the Atlanta will-call so I can drop by and ask for one..=20 So far, I've been unable to win an auction on Ebay for less than $40.00. =20

I keep begging them to print an extra 1000 copies of the next edition and offer them for sale on their web site for around $20.00 as a test. I suspect that they'll be sold out in a month. =20

To reply, please remove one letter from each side of "@" Spammers are VERMIN. Please kill them all.

We've been dealing with them since '87, and it still amazes me that one company can do so many things and get it right 99.999% of the time. Instead of trying to reform the Pentagon, Rumsfeld should just fire the whole lot and let MCM run all the procurement and logistics!

Peter T. Keillor III wrote:

If you drop by most larger aircraft repair stations before the new one arrives, they most likely will give you the outdated Catalogues. Take the publications person a plate of Brownies or a Gift Certificate and you will be supplied for life.

It always pays to be in good with the inventory people. Doesn't matter where or when. If its not MCM catalogs, its first pick over the stuff going into excess or proceeds from the latest procurement screw-up. Sweetness!

Gregm

I have a friend who works for them. It is truely amazing. I order something before 5:00CST and I will have it the next day. Also, no hassel returns. Though, I try to keep them to the bare minimum as to not abuse it.

The only way to get a catalog is to be on a special list. To get one this late in the year is because it was a return. Often they destroy catalogs that weren't sent out rather than give them to people. Their inventory is based on what their top customers buy and it would hurt relations if they don't have needed items in stock.

Their do> I spent the week before last in New Jersey on a scaleup run at our

I get a new catalog every two years. I spend less that $3000 a year with them. Their service is so good that I am amazed with every order. I love the ability to order from their website, but also love the ability to brows through their catalog looking for a solution for my latest problem. I would not use a CD version if I had it. Can't read the CD while I'm sitting on the pot

I used to get mine at a computer service company I worked at. They got one every year, and the business had absolutely no need for their products, so I just took the catalogs home. (I suspect they're probably still delivering them to the new tenant at that address..) Whenever I buy something on the website, I do a btit more searching for other things I might need, but rarely find them. One day, while browsing the catalog at the Atlanta will call desk, I found at least five other items I would have bought right there if I had any time left. =20 If I had the catalogs, I'd probably spend five times as much.. Hmm, perhaps it's better I don;t have one. :-)

To reply, please remove one letter from each side of "@" Spammers are VERMIN. Please kill them all.

I get one every year, and I'm sure it sells me enough to pay for it. I like being able to leaf back and forth through pages of similar items, but I really like just thumbing through it marveling (and ticking off for web ordering) at what they have. I wouldn't give up the online catalog, but there is still a lot of value to the paper catalog.

Its the overnight delivery that really makes MMC valuable to me. Someone at the jobsite comes to me saying, "I need such and such," and I can have it on site by 10:00 AM the next morning by ground shipping. I'm in SE Michigan and get served by the Cleveland branch; how they do it I can't figure. Maybe they can get things into the UPS delivery chain until late at night. Maybe they truck things to Toledo for mass delivery to UPS distribution there.

-- --Pete "Peter W. Meek"

I missed the staff meeting but the minutes show Peter T. Keillor III wrote back on Mon, 27 Dec 2004 20:35:56 -0500 in rec.crafts.metalworking :

That is the advantage of References on Dead Trees. The definition of a dullard is someone who goes to an encyclopedia or dictionary and looks up the item they are interested in, and then closes the book!

Heck, I can't recall the number of times I've put a reference away and then have to drag it out because I'd forgotten what I'd come for.

tschus pyotr

I missed the staff meeting but the minutes show "J. Clark" wrote back on Mon, 27 Dec 2004 23:34:52 -0500 in rec.crafts.metalworking :

"Mmmm Do-o-nuts!" Listening to one of the local radio car advice shows, and the running refrain is to "take your autocare provider donuts." Especially for a job well done. Pay the bill, but the donuts go a long way towards making you a welcome customer.

I did that, even if it was the School Auto Shop Program. Hey, they saved me a bunch of money, fixed the truck, and (hopefully) learned the lessons well.

And sometimes, "a couple" can be spared.

My dad asked a friend if he could spare a few tulip bulbs. "No problem, I'll drop them off." Dad comes home and there is a gunny sack full of bulbs. "Just a few" when you run a bulb farm is a hughmongous amount when you're just want "a few" to decorate the house.

"Counting flowers on the mall..."

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 15:12:40 GMT, pyotr filipivich calmly ranted:

True, true. I do extra reading in dictionaries, too, usually getting sidetracked by words as I skim to find the page I first needed.

I have absolutely no idea of what you are talking about.

----------------------------------------------- I'll apologize for offending someone...right after they apologize for being easily offended.

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Is one of those old-fashioned reasons because a CD makes a much poorer substitute when you run out of toilet paper?

Jeff