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How do people on HN feel about Arrow Electronics? https://www.arrow.com/ https://www.arrow.com/ I don't see any mention of them ITT yet. I've used them a bit

How do people on HN feel about Arrow Electronics? https://www.arrow.com/ https://www.arrow.com/ I don't see any mention of them ITT yet. I've used them a bit in the past for a project I was involved with. They were not the cheapest but they seem pretty ok from my experience.

55873445216111 3y ago
Arrow is the largest electronic component distributor in the world. They cater mainly to mid/large companies though, not hobbiests/etailing.
- jjoonathan 3y ago
  They had a free shipping promotion on (relatively) small orders a while ago, so I don't think they mind the attention.
  - KennyBlanken 3y ago
    I think it's more about establishing business relationships with young EEs, entrepreneurs, etc who may rise to more senior positions. Treat your small customers well and there's a decent chance they remember it when they're big. People remember good service, especially when they feel they weren't a "big fish" at the time they received that good service; it feels more genuine and consistent.
antoniuschan99 3y ago
You can also look at Verical for reels of components as it’s part of Arrow
HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
My last experience with Arrow was such a gigantic clusterfuck, that it's hard to form a real opinion. I'm going to chalk it up to a big company making a statistical mistake that just happened to affect me. However, when my order is a customized First Article for verification testing, which by definition means I'm planning to buy tens of thousands of units later, you'd think they'd try harder.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
joezydeco 3y ago
A few years back Arrow started a design/build consulting arm. They'd come in for lunch-and-learn sales sessions bearing sandwiches and a friendly smile while quietly learning who our clients are and, eventually, stealing design wins away from us. Fuck Arrow. Never going back.
ultrarunner 3y ago
I was initially (pre-covid) thrilled at how quickly they shipped and found their pricing reasonable. Orders came in the "you ordered 10 but our smallest box holds 10,000" style of packaging. Then, seemingly everything I wanted was out of stock and never seemed to come back. I get the sense that they know what they're doing, but aren't really serving the prototyping crowd.
fpgaminer 3y ago
I've worked B2B with Arrow, and B2C. They're a big gorilla in the industry for B2B, but much less well known in the B2C world. (In this instance, for B2C I mean B2Hobbyists like Mouser and Digikey are). I wasn't terribly happy with them on B2B. They just weren't very attentive, and ended up costing our small business countless hours and money. In their defense they tended to always let us shoot up the chain and rectify things after the fact. But after the fact is quite painful for small businesses. On the plus side, they are a big gorilla, and there are advantages to that when you aren't well networked in the industry. B2C they're okayish. I prefer Mouser/Digikey/etc. But I've never had a bad experience with them, and sometimes they're cheaper, so I keep them in my rotation. For awhile they were making a hard push into B2C and offered free overnight shipping. God, that was amazing. tl;dr: They're okay, but not the best in any regard.
sokoloff 3y ago
A few years ago, they switched tools partners away from Wiha (I think to Apex Group). Anyway, they ended up putting most of the Wiha tools on clearance and many of them were 80-90% off. To say I bought a LOT would be somewhat of an understatement. Sadly, the Wiha precision screwdriver large kits were sold out before I found out about it, but I got loads of other great Wiha tools at prices under the home center craptastic specials. In the course of buying those, I also added several electronics components that I needed and they came in entirely as expected; zero drama.

55873445216111 3y ago

Arrow is the largest electronic component distributor in the world. They cater mainly to mid/large companies though, not hobbiests/etailing.

jjoonathan 3y ago
They had a free shipping promotion on (relatively) small orders a while ago, so I don't think they mind the attention.
- KennyBlanken 3y ago
  I think it's more about establishing business relationships with young EEs, entrepreneurs, etc who may rise to more senior positions. Treat your small customers well and there's a decent chance they remember it when they're big. People remember good service, especially when they feel they weren't a "big fish" at the time they received that good service; it feels more genuine and consistent.

antoniuschan99 3y ago

You can also look at Verical for reels of components as it’s part of Arrow

HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago

My last experience with Arrow was such a gigantic clusterfuck, that it's hard to form a real opinion. I'm going to chalk it up to a big company making a statistical mistake that just happened to affect me. However, when my order is a customized First Article for verification testing, which by definition means I'm planning to buy tens of thousands of units later, you'd think they'd try harder.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

joezydeco 3y ago

A few years back Arrow started a design/build consulting arm. They'd come in for lunch-and-learn sales sessions bearing sandwiches and a friendly smile while quietly learning who our clients are and, eventually, stealing design wins away from us. Fuck Arrow. Never going back.

ultrarunner 3y ago

I was initially (pre-covid) thrilled at how quickly they shipped and found their pricing reasonable. Orders came in the "you ordered 10 but our smallest box holds 10,000" style of packaging. Then, seemingly everything I wanted was out of stock and never seemed to come back. I get the sense that they know what they're doing, but aren't really serving the prototyping crowd.

fpgaminer 3y ago

I've worked B2B with Arrow, and B2C. They're a big gorilla in the industry for B2B, but much less well known in the B2C world. (In this instance, for B2C I mean B2Hobbyists like Mouser and Digikey are). I wasn't terribly happy with them on B2B. They just weren't very attentive, and ended up costing our small business countless hours and money. In their defense they tended to always let us shoot up the chain and rectify things after the fact. But after the fact is quite painful for small businesses. On the plus side, they are a big gorilla, and there are advantages to that when you aren't well networked in the industry. B2C they're okayish. I prefer Mouser/Digikey/etc. But I've never had a bad experience with them, and sometimes they're cheaper, so I keep them in my rotation. For awhile they were making a hard push into B2C and offered free overnight shipping. God, that was amazing. tl;dr: They're okay, but not the best in any regard.

sokoloff 3y ago

A few years ago, they switched tools partners away from Wiha (I think to Apex Group). Anyway, they ended up putting most of the Wiha tools on clearance and many of them were 80-90% off. To say I bought a LOT would be somewhat of an understatement. Sadly, the Wiha precision screwdriver large kits were sold out before I found out about it, but I got loads of other great Wiha tools at prices under the home center craptastic specials. In the course of buying those, I also added several electronics components that I needed and they came in entirely as expected; zero drama.