Small Parts has been one of my all-time favorite distributors. They were acquired by Amazon a couple of years ago, and served as the foundation for the industrial department of Amazon.com.
Amazon has now converted Small Parts into what they’re calling Amazon Supply. Amazon Supply is described as a beta service, but it looks like Amazon is serious about becoming a major player in the industrial, scientific, and office supply market.
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All the products sold via Amazon Supply are also available via Amazon.com, but there are added benefits for industrial customers, such as a business line of credit, and 365-day returns. You can also sign in with your existing Amazon.com account.
It will be interesting to see how Amazon Supply evolves. A while back we wrote about Amazon’s Contractor Supply, which is also still in beta. We don’t know of anyone that uses Amazon to deliver building supplies direct to the jobsite, but it’s still a neat idea. Hopefully the industrial supply shop won’t fall victim to the same 2-year beta limbo as the contractor supply program.
What do you guys think of the navigation structure? Personally, I’m not impressed, but it’s usable.
jeff_williams
I was looking for one of those gas springs like used on auto trunks and hoods but ended up at McMaster Carr because their search is much better. Amazon Supply didn’t seem to have it.
Bill Owen
Agreed. It’s a poor copy of Mcmaster’s Search. I spent the past 30 minutes looking over Amazon’s selection and it’s VERY inconsistent, just like Home Depot, which only skims the surface. Maybe they’re not finished stocking, or finding suppliers to sign up for their program. For Weekend projects, I’m sure Amazon Supply will do fine, but for true “Industrial” outfits like my business, I’ll stick with established specialty companies, like Mcmaster, MSC, Grainger, and Fastenal.
AndrewC
Small Parts used to have a few good deals (high discounted items) mixed in with a lot of items that could be found cheaper at Mcmaster. I would always use the Amazon Discount Link Generator to sort through the Small Parts catalog. I wonder if the Generator will still work for the Amazon Supply site
Stuart
The %-off search is disabled for products classified under “industrial supplies,” so I doubt it will work for the Amazon Supply listings. However, it still works for the tool & home improvement category where most industrial items are cross-listed.
Cen
I’ve actually bought items on Amazon Supply and not only were they very easy to deal with, I actually saved a tremendous amount of money on my first order. Also the person I spoke with was exceptionally nice, was really helpful and was very nice to deal with.
McMaster though, oh boy. Not only vehemently refuse to disclose basic information about a product, but they would not tell me the manufacturer either. The person I spoke also was also did seem to have an attitude as well. All I will say is that they lost a customer in me.
Fred
Just the idea that Amazon is doing this is amazing. I don’t mind that it’s not ready for prime time yet. Hell I don’t mind if it takes them a year to get it right; if you know the kind of fasteners you need regularly and/or categorize/keep receipts of what you’ve previously purchased, ordering them is a great alternative to wasting time/making projects take longer.
I know you can order from most every supply company already but since I buy nearly all my blades, nails/staples, and most other consumables from amazon already I can get all the stuff for a project probably in the same shipment, so I have it all ready to go and get started. I pretty much hate McMaster & Fastenal at this point, though the Grainger in town has some decent guys. Grainger just never has the odd stuff.
When this thing is ready it will sure beat going across town to wait in line at AF after having searched Lowes/HD for odd stuff.
Chirs
I personally like Fastenal much better as with the one in my area, at least they try to help you out and not just say “Not my problem, sucks to be you.”. I can’t tell you the sheer amount of times that has happened in the past.
I am not a fan of Mcmaster either as like Cen said, they won’t tell you anything without a giant struggle or just not at all.
Grainier does occasionally have odd items in to stock, you just have to look around and spend time looking. I am not playing around by saying you will need to get familiar with learning their database system if you want the the very odd items though,
AZO
I use Amazon Supply form time to time. I’ve gotten to the point that I first search Amazon, then I search Supply for that item I found on Amazon. It will likely be the same price, but when the order is over $50.00 Two-Day shipping is free.
Both Amazon Supply and Amazon lack decent “drill down” search capability for industrial items, so I’m more likely to use Supply for home use than for work.