Does anyone remember Small Parts? They had an awesome catalog somewhat akin to McMaster. When Amazon bought them out, for a year or two, Amazon search maintained the really detailed category stuff and was approaching McMaster utility for things like machine screws. But then, like much with Amazon, it died.
I'm very much confused about why there aren't more Amazon competitors that do better with this sort of UI stuff and charge more. At this point, I'm happy to pay a 10% (or maybe even 50%) tax from McMaster or Digikey because of the time and effort it saves and the backend customer service if something goes wrong. When I started my university lab 10 years ago, I was so excited by what Amazon is doing. At this point, the only reason I still use them is that its hard to set up sales tax exemptions with all the small vendors. If someone could automate that process in checkout, I'd never use Amazon for work...
I'm very much confused about why there aren't more Amazon competitors that do better with this sort of UI stuff and charge more. At this point, I'm happy to pay a 10% (or maybe even 50%) tax from McMaster or Digikey because of the time and effort it saves and the backend customer service if something goes wrong. When I started my university lab 10 years ago, I was so excited by what Amazon is doing. At this point, the only reason I still use them is that its hard to set up sales tax exemptions with all the small vendors. If someone could automate that process in checkout, I'd never use Amazon for work...