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Amazon Supply
- jgmmo 15y agoThis seems pretty bold to me? Anyone else suprised by this? Could put alot of pressure on home improvement retailers and industrial suppliers. Reminds me of Octopart - right? that YC supply search startup? In any event, this is very cool. Especially for home robotics hobbyist :)
- evandena 15y agoPrices are still twice as high as the items I spot checked from McMaster
- tomkinstinch 15y agoIndeed. One nice thing though is that they honor Amazon Prime free two-day shipping.
- moxiemk1 15y agoWhile McMaster shipping certainly isn't free, it's always overnight, and often less than 100% of cost, so if Amazon is actually 2x price, McMaster still makes sense. Side note: McMaster has, hands down, the best/most useable site I've ever used. The flow always gets me quickly to exactly what I want, even if I don't know what that is going in.
- juiceandjuice 15y agoI'll second that, McMaster's site is a work of art, especially if need something and you don't know the industry name/term for something.
- HeyLaughingBoy 15y agoThat's a good point. It's been many years since I ordered from McMaster and I didn't remember shipping always being overnight.
- damoncali 15y agoI know this is the third "me too comment" for this, but you cannot overstate how awesome McMaster Carr is for this sort of thing - they have everything. Massive amounts of information on the site, super fast shipping, reasonable prices. If you build stuff in your spare time and haven't tried McMaster-Carr, you're missing out.
- creamyhorror 15y agoI am taking notes on their website. Now that is functional design, stripped down to the core.
- blhack 15y agoTo anybody that doesn't know what you're talking about: http://www.mcmaster.com/ http://www.mcmaster.com/ It's a hardware store that sells pretty much every single part you could imagine or need.
- ConstantineXVI 15y agoI've never found Amazon's site particularly well done, but they could definitely learn a thing or seven from that site.
- skore 15y agoAmazon is not about getting you to fill your purchase order with the parts list of your latest project. It's about trapping you and selling you things you didn't know you wanted. What would you want Amazon to learn from them?
- sakai 15y agoMcMaster Carr must be shuddering right now.
- tesseract 15y agoThis looks like a rebrand of SmallParts which Amazon bought a while ago. Pricing and searchability were always worse than McMaster and it doesn't seem dramatically improved now.
- kulkarnic 15y agoYes, it is rebranded SmallParts. From their FAQ (http://www.amazonsupply.com/help/200223050/ref=sp_ft_au http://www.amazonsupply.com/help/200223050/ref=sp_ft_au): What happened to SmallParts.com? SmallParts, Inc., joined the Amazon family in 2005. In the past seven years, the dedicated team at SmallParts helped us expand our service and selection until we have grown well beyond our original focus of tubing, parts and fasteners for the medical supply and research industries. We have chosen the name AmazonSupply to help communicate our new, broader selection....
- qq66 15y agoMcMaster Carr is 111 years old, so they take a longer-term view. Imagine what this may be in 5 years, and 20, if Amazon keeps improving it.
- devinmontgomery 15y agoI've done a lot of ordering through McMaster Carr, and the ease, delivery time and selection are amazing. It's strange to say this, but they're the one company that I don't see Amazon being able to distinguish themselves from. McMaster is already operating at that level.
- joezydeco 15y agoDelivery time is why I buy from McMaster. If I get the order in early enough, a dude in a van shows up in a few hours.
- gcb 15y agoIt's exactly the same crappy stuff they have on the regular site. everything there i could find on amazon.com, and from my experience buying small lab tools from them, it's a 80% return rate. last one was a set of precision tweezers which only 1/3 of them properly closed in alignment. The good brands are 2x and 3x the price at a proper store.
- dsl 15y agoSounds like you have had the usual experience with 3rd party sellers on Amazon. Never ever buy from them! These parts are being directly stocked and sold by Amazon.
- eru 15y ago> Sounds like you have had the usual experience with 3rd party sellers on Amazon. Never ever buy from them! As a counter-anecdote, I can't remember problems with 3rd party sellers. But then I'm only buying stuff like books.
- gcb 15y agotrue. i did my lesson and avoid everything that does not show "backed by amazon". That's why i mention "return rate of 80%" i did bought some of those from 3rd party, and those are in the garbage.
- amac 15y agoI work for an Industrial Supply company and have monitored this since they bought SmallParts. Needless to say, Industrial Supply is a low margin, volume business that requires high service levels. Most Industrial Supply companies sell the same products, there really isn't a differentiator. As always in retail, price, selection and availability are crucial in making sales. This is a good match for Amazon, and obviously they have everything in place already to make this a success e.g warehousing, payments, ordering channels etc. It's worth noting most companies who seek industrial supply want credit - amazon already accepts credit lines though obviously these are not as nice as the cash they get instantly from credit cards and payments. I guess the only thing Amazon lacks in this regard is a physical presence, something that Grainger, Fastenal, Airgas etc and other Industrial Supply companies have in hundreds/thousands of stores. In terms of the market opportunity and potential success for Amazon, Industrial Supply is a huge and fragmented sector. The leaders mentioned above have low single digit market share, the same applies world-wide. The business itself is not hugely profitable, but it moves slowly and hence is relatively straight forward in regards to operation, forecasting and numbers.
- HeyLaughingBoy 15y agoDon't underestimate the benefit of physical presence. When I need something now, it is a huge benefit to be able to walk into Fastenal and buy it on the spot. Also, metal is heavy, again using Fastenal as an example, I can order online and pickup instore without paying shipping. Prices are higher than onlinemetals.com, or speedymetals.com but the convenience and no shipping cost often trumps that.
- karlmarxman 15y agoIn addition, isn't a big part of Amazon's appeal the excellent customer service (especially effective in mitigating the cost of no physical presence when competing against big box stores)? I'm by no means an expert, but I'd assume that factors like speed and price are higher up on the list of priorities for a firm buying industrial supplies vs. the average customer shopping for books or a new TV. I just don't know how much of what Amazon is known for would translate into growing a market share in raw materials.
- ChuckMcM 15y agoI agree with most that the competitor here is McMaster-Carr. The collateral damage could be places like Lowes/Home Depot etc (brick and mortar supply stores) but agree with most here that SmallParts (which this was created out of) didn't have quite the execution that McMaster-Carr does. The other bit is there is the whole interaction model. In the fabricator world they seem to get an account with one of these companies, order various bits all month long and then get a roll up once a month or so on their purchases. That doesn't seem to be an Amazon compatible model yet. It will be interesting to see how it works out.
- oacgnol 15y agoAgreed, and I'd like to see what this competition will do with respect to McMaster-Carr. For a school design project, I had to order parts from a website and McMaster-Carr had by far the best website of any vendor. From a cursory glance, the Amazon Supply site doesn't have quite the polish or flow of McMaster's.
- joshu 15y agoHmm. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but my McMaster catalog had way more stepper motors in it than the website does?
- jonknee 15y agoAmazon let's you pay net-45 and prominently features this: http://www.amazonsupply.com/help/200543490/ref=sp_sn_loc http://www.amazonsupply.com/help/200543490/ref=sp_sn_loc
- damoncali 15y agoIt will be interesting to see how it works out. Indeed. I've for years been impressed with how sophisticated McMaster-Carr's e commerce operations are. That, and I wonder if not having a "Big Book" will hinder Amazon at all. I've lost days of my life reading MSC's catalog...
- state 15y agoMcMaster has always been one of my favorite companies, and favorite websites. I definitely much prefer bouncing around on the McMaster site.
- K2h 15y agoI can see my personal use of amazonsupply just because I already use amazon at home (its the new walmart of the web if you haven't heard). at work --- not so much. have to create an account to charge to, worry about lead times. not worth it.
- gaustin 15y agoSome cool stuff, but not much I need with any regularity. Other sources are more than fine. I'll be excited when they stock the types of high-carbon steels that Aldo Bruno[0] sells. I'm still waiting for someone to disrupt the hard to search supply shops like Jantz: http://www.knifemaking.com/Default.asp http://www.knifemaking.com/Default.asp 0: http://njsteelbaron.com/ http://njsteelbaron.com/
- TylerE 15y agoThey are offering free shipping on orders over $50... I wonder if they honor Prime also? Might be rather lucrative (for the customer) as steel is deceptively heavy in bulk. Thinking about stuff like the 1" steel rod I used to use as material in shop class for lathe work.
- JshWright 15y agoDoesn't seem that deceptive to me...
- jrockway 15y agoThis is nice. I've occasionally wanted a big bar of copper, but I've never known where to buy it. (The links to McMaster, however, are probably the most helpful thing to come of this product announcement.)
- ggchappell 15y agoI guess I'm not quite sure what this is. Say I want some gallium[1]. A search in Amazon turns it up, under "Industrial & Scientific". But a search in AmazonSupply (which claims to cover "scientific, industrial, & business") does not. So AmazonSupply is not just a rebranding of Amazon's existing I&S section. What is it? [1] You want it, too. Gallium melts at 30C, so it's a solid on your table, and a liquid in your hand. Fun stuff!
- brokentone 15y agoThat seems like an awesome thing. For the younger members here (and me) can you speak to the danger of this substance? The MSDS for it didn't make it seem too overly scary. Not too far beyond sand's danger (possible skin irritant). Because it's already in my cart...
- DiabloD3 15y agoGallium is poisonous. Do NOT ingest it or handle it without proper safety precautions.
- ars 15y agoNo it's not. Metallic Gallium is not considered poisonous. I mean, I wouldn't eat it. But incidental handling is not going to hurt you. There is some dispute on this, but if there is a dispute then that means it can't be very poisonous. This is accurate: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gallium+safety http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gallium+safety
- ggchappell 15y agoWell, the only honest answer I can give to such a question is, "Ask someone who knows something about that." Alas that person wouldn't be me. User DiabloD3 seems to have given it a good start, though.
- abruzzi 15y agoUnfortunately, I couldn't find most of the types of pieces I use (2"x 4" square tubing, 2" square tubing, 2 3/4" round tubing--all steel.) For a hobbyist, this could be a god send if they would carry the pieces I need. I have plenty of local places that sell the metal scrap I need, but all are attuned to construction/fabrication business hours, and none have weekend hours for a hobbyist welder that wants to build a bull bar for his Landcruiser.
- SeanLuke 15y agoFirst thing I checked for was Nitinol. The awesomest alloy on the planet.
- Natsu 15y agoCare to explain more?
- weavejester 15y agoOne interesting property of nitinol is that it remembers a preconfigured shape when heated to a certain temperature: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7jjqXh7bB4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7jjqXh7bB4
- sandfox 15y agoI think that's that the alloy 'muscle wire' is made from
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- apechai 15y agoThis is more likely to put mom & pop stores out of business than threaten the big players like Fastenal, Grainger, McMaster-Carr and MSC Direct. Mom & pops focus more on retail / small business customers who are price sensitive, so this is going to hurt them. But the big players mainly rely on their services because industrial and commercial customers care more about minimizing downtime and reliability than on price. The customer service at these companies is great and helps sort through 1 million+ skews, which is completely different from picking 1 out of 20 TVs at Best Buy. Their customers are companies like Caterpillar who need projects to be on time and same day delivery. Fastenal even puts fasteners directly inside of bins on the assembly lines so that the customer doesn't have to haul a huge chunks of metal. Amazon would have to seriously boost its service (ie, same day to location) delivery to gain the non-retail customer base as well as expand its sales staff expertise dramatically (which of the 1000 cutting tool bits do I need for X job, what angle does it have to be installed at etc?). What this will do is consolidate the industry with Amazon and the existing big players at the expense of the mom & pops which are over 80% of the market. It's a $140-160bn a year market. Just goes to show how much opportunity there is in technology to expand outside of consumer-focused businesses.
- StuartJenner 15y agoDoes Amazon sell nanomorph mimetic poly-alloys too?
- brokentone 15y agoI wonder both how much business this is going to take from other outlets as well as how much will be new business. People like me who never knew they needed or could easily get random alloys to play with. The big banners for Amazon Prime suggest there may be some of that.
- StuartJenner 15y agoNice. I've always needed wood chippers. Don't ask what I need them for.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- kayhi 15y agoWe're a start up in this space although more focused on chemicals. They have a quite a bit to do on the pricing front. Petri Dishes, 100x15mm $133 vs. $79 (sterile, which is better) Amazon: http://bit.ly/I550u2 http://bit.ly/I550u2 P212121: http://store.p212121.com/petri-dishes/ http://store.p212121.com/petri-dishes/ Allihn Condensers, 200mm Jacket, $85 vs. $43 Amazon: http://bit.ly/I5PC3p http://bit.ly/I5PC3p P212121: http://store.p212121.com/allihn-condenser/ http://store.p212121.com/allihn-condenser/ It will be fun to see how they adjust moving forward.
- cpeterso 15y agoI was going to post a joke about Amazon customer reviews of their favorite alloys, but the review forms are actually a real thing!
- DavidAbrams 15y agoNot ready for prime time. Log-ins don't work right, and even their CAPTCHA on the password-recovery screen is totally broken.