Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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Amazon has a reputation of having you do your own research while letting practically anyone peddle their crap on its platform. McMaster-Carr, on the other hand, is well-known and respected for having a massive curated catalog of fasteners and other hardware. If you need an M8 bolt, it will have just one offering for each length, will charge a premium price, but will guarantee it's not some chinesium crap you won't strip as soon as you tighten it.
Who are the McMasters of other goods? Toys, clothing, dimensional lumber, USB cords, dietary supplements?
Their website, from a developer standpoint, is top-notch.
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Grainger and Fasternal have some overlap with McMaster-Carr, though there are some areas that their stock focuses are different that can be relevant.
Some mechanics would argue Snap-on as a tool-specific version, though I'm... not really skilled enough with any Snap-on tools I've used to recognize the differences well.
DigiKey and Mouser (and to a lesser extent Jameco and Arrow) would be the centralized spots for electronics components, where if you needed one chip even if it's been out of production for five years and absolutely positively can't accept a clone or a fake, they'll work for you, and it's still a major marketing argument. That said, while they still have pretty good catalogues and stocks, the combination of 'market' sellers and occasional parts contamination mean you have to do more filtering now than pre-COVID. For small orders, they can actually make sense to work with, since calling up Molex or STM directly and trying to order five can end up pretty similar in cost, and other shops just won't talk with you for less than 1k parts, but as you start trying to go to mass production getting a real connection to the underlying business for major parts becomes more important.
For network/IT, fs.com will cover most stuff, and make your wallet wince at the same time. Their network switches aren't awfully overpriced for next-day delivery where your office might struggle with the local Best Buy crap, but fiber equipment is not cheap and if you need it tomorrow it'll be really not cheap. The cameras are actually good for the price priced that I'm a little skeptical of their claimed NDAA compliance, though.
For user electronics cables, monoprice is the best I'm aware of. They've had a few supply chain fuckups, but especially as power-over-usb goes to higher and higher wattages, they're gonna be increasingly important.
For odd electronics adapters, big choice is StarTech. They're not the only people with USB-serial adapters (second place: TrendNet TU-S9s) I'll trust in safety-of-life situations, where a lot of amazon-grade or even Microcenter-grade ones will work kinda until they need to be reset, but StarTech's like this for everything they make, and they make weird stuff. That said, you do have to be careful, because they will retire products with few users, and then you're really up shit creek without a paddle -- I know the underlying (I think Silex?) driver issue that caused this to die off, but I know of three separate businesses that had to scramble because of it.
I love their stuff, and I own a lot of it, but it's not exactly highest quality.
I've got bluetooth headphones where the ear padding is disintegrating completely. I love their retro over-the-ear headphones, but they're out of stock and I've pulled the cord on two pairs such that one cuts in and out and the other simply doesn't work on one ear.
Still, I will continue to buy from them, and appreciate the mention.
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I think they may have outsourced some stuff now -- I've got some weird KVM-type stuff from them that is great, but my work IT supplied a simple USB-C dock (probably the cheapest one in their catalog) that is utter garbage; drops monitors pretty often and semi-frequently drops all usb devices, needing to be unplugged from the laptop to reset. Definitely not safety-of-life grade.
Ooof. That's unfortunate. Wouldn't be the first time for them to have glorified reseller stuff, but that level of issue in pretty mainstream hardware is a real big downer.
Yeah I don't actually mind when this kind of thing is weird and janky on my own weird and janky systems, but if your thing is janky on managed-out-the-ass corporate windows laptops, it's a problem. (not least because on my own systems I can usually dig in and fix the jank if it bothers me too much -- the IT drones OTOH have only so much time to devote to such things, so 'unplug it and plug it back in usually works, if not reboot' is the best I can do for my team)
I'm kind of thinking it's heat-related maybe -- TBF I do have a lot plugged into the thing. I may now have enough pull to just ask IT to send me an HP one -- thanks for the reminder, lol.
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McMaster-Carr is well-known for having a massive curated catalog of practically everything that an industrial operation could possibly need, and having it in stock and available on short notice. The fact that it will be a quality product almost goes without saying. And saying it's pricier is an understatement. I don't know about the website, but when my dad was a shop foreman he said there was a $25 minimum shipping cost on every order. They exist because if I'm running a factory or a steel mill or a chemical plant or any other kind of business, if something goes down and I need a part on short-notice they can get it there in a day rather than a week. For that reason, there probably isn't anything comparable for toys, or clothing, or other stuff that's ultimately inessential. There's no such thing as an emergency toy purchase. Their customers are willing to pay a premium because they lose a lot more money by not having the item.
Current McMaster-Carr will sometimes let you get away with better shipping costs (<10 USD for envelope-weight packages), although the prices for the products themselves are still extremely high compared to the typical vendor (expect 3x on common-use parts, and up to 20x for weird stuff). But they'll have it in stock, and it'll be on your doorstop tomorrow, short of a literal disaster.
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