Does anyone else go looking on amazon because they used to have loads of stuff, but now there’s just a few things over and over and over and they’re not quite what you wanted. It’s so full of promoted content and you keep thinking that somewhere on one of the pages there might be something new, but no, it’s these same products again and again.
Honestly that site is genius.
They provide as much information as possible for all their hardware. Specs, drawings, CAD models, similar products, item codes, CAGE codes, everything! All without requiring an account or membership. Why do that when someone could just take that info and use it to find a cheaper source? Especially when they’re more expensive than other sources by 25% or more? Well because engineers will often grab their models and use them in their designs, and when it comes time to order things, knowing the parts ordered will have the exact dimensions and specifications as the ones in your model is often worth the premium. Plus they have so many products that if it’s not on their website, there’s a good chance it doesn’t exist anywhere.
Most other hardware sellers use the worst model imaginable for their sites. The kind where it’s like “Oh, you’d like some tubing? Well give us an email, make an account, and send a message to our sales team to put together a quote for you. And we won’t share the full specs until you do, so there’s no guarantee that we even have what you want.”
McMaster really embraced the philosophy that if you make things as easy as possible for your customers, they’ll choose you even if you’re more expensive.