[Richard Wallace]

Sorry for reviving a dormant thread. I didn't notice it in Nov-Dec '05; guess I was busy with my day job, trying to clear the deck before FRC started to get intense. Anyway, I finally did notice it when this spotlight showed up at the top of the CD screen:

Originally Posted by dlavery

If they want my business, then they should act accordingly. If they don't, I am quite happy to take my business (and that of my $16.5 billion organization) elsewhere.

I also work for a $17B organization (measuring annual sales; NYSE symbol is EMR). At my location we have about 200 engineers; we are a centralized R&D facility supporting a network of manufacturing sites which ship a total product volume exceeding 300,000 units daily. (And that is just the electric motor segment of Emerson, about $2B annual sales.) While we don't buy much that goes into actual products from McMaster-Carr, we do buy a lot a stuff from them to keep our labs and plants running. Given all that, we have no problem getting service requests handled, including updated paper catalogs on demand. My lab technician probably orders from McMaster-Carr every other day on average. Because we have a nearby McM distribution center, orders normally reach us by 10:30 am the next morning; occasionally we get some material shipped from another center that arrives later the same day or the following day.

I am amazed to hear that McMaster-Carr does not view NASA as an account worthy of the same excellent service that they give my employer. That just doesn't make sense to me -- I'd expect that NASA would buy a lot more stuff for R&D support than Emerson does.

McMaster-Carr is not the best cost supplier for raw stock, as many others on these fora can confirm. But they are my favorite for wide variety, excellent online information, good product line searchability, and very fast delivery.