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Apparent buyout of smallparts.com by Amazon — Parallax Forums

Apparent buyout of smallparts.com by Amazon

idbruceidbruce Posts: 6,197
edited 2012-10-09 21:37 in General Discussion
For Those That May Be Interested

While looking for some very small bearings this morning, I attempted to visit the Small Parts website, and was redirected to an Amazon beta website. This could quite possibly be a good thing, because if I remember correctly, it was always hard to locate parts at the Small Parts web site. The new site seems to be more intuitive for locating parts. Here is a link and I will let you be the judge:

http://www.amazonsupply.com/

Bruce

Comments

  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-10-09 04:51
    Big fish eats little fish. When I studied for my license exam for becoming an Enrolled Agent for the IRS, it became very clear that the US tax law encourages the successful corporation to buy out smaller corporations with excess profit rather than pay corporate income tax.

    In other words, Amazon must be doing well. It is too soon to know if they can boost Small Parts into something even better.
  • idbruceidbruce Posts: 6,197
    edited 2012-10-09 04:56
    Loopy

    I am not sure how this will work out across the board, but here is a price comparison for you.

    http://www.fastenal.com/web/products/detail.ex?sku=0474484
    http://www.amazonsupply.com/dp/B00634VXEE/ref=sp_dp_g2c_asin

    Appears that Amazon is trying to get away with highway robbery :)
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-10-09 06:30
    It is only the beginning for Amazon, price may just be high to grab your attention. Reductions in prices will keep your attention. And so on.

    Generally, if you buy out a business it is wisest to let the employees adjust to the new owners before you start doing anything monumental. If not, you risk having to quash a rebellion and mass exodus. Not sure what is going on here.

    I certainly don't buy all my books from Amazon, OReily gives you a third book free if you buy two and free shipping in the USA. And Abe Books are much better for out of print items.

    For small parts, I would just do the same. Amazon tends to serve me as a reference of what the price might be.
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2012-10-09 07:44
    I buy a lot of nuts and bolts from microfasteners.com.

    I just compared the price of 1", 4-40, stainless steel, pan head, machine screws at Amazon, Fastenal and Micro Fasteners. These are the prices for 100.

    Amazon $7.49
    Fastenal $8.53
    MicroFasteners $6.40

    Fastenal would sell a single screw while Amazon and MF sold the screws in bags of 100. I just chose this size of screw since it's one I've ordered lately. It would of course take many more comparisons to establish if one of the stores had over all lower prices.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2012-10-09 08:00
    Amazon's purchase of SmallParts was some time ago, and the site's been changed over for maybe a half year or so. Amazon has always wanted to be in the industrial supply business and compete with the likes of McMaster-Carr and Grainger. I've found the prices are decent -- no change from SmallPart's prices from what I can see -- and with Prime you get free shipping. (The $80 price for Prime is worth it if you have a Roku or similar streaming device, as you then get thousands of free movies and TV shows.)

    -- Gordon
  • CircuitsoftCircuitsoft Posts: 1,166
    edited 2012-10-09 11:48
    In 2009, Fastenal was rated 24th worst place to work in America, according to a glassdoor.com survey. Given that, I would avoid Fastenal for the same reason that I avoid Walmart.
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2012-10-09 12:10
    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?139287-What-happened-to-Small-Parts
  • idbruceidbruce Posts: 6,197
    edited 2012-10-09 16:14
    oooppppsss forgot all about that post
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2012-10-09 16:54
    Circuitsoft wrote: »
    Given that, I would avoid Fastenal for the same reason that I avoid Walmart.

    The reason I avoid Fastenal is that their "wholesale" price is hardly better than retail price at a decent hardware store, at least for fasteners. I purchase mine at real wholesale from a local fastener distributor. They're easy to find; I think in LA I lost track of counting them after three pages of 50 on each page!

    -- Gordon
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2012-10-09 19:27
    Duane Degn wrote: »
    I buy a lot of nuts and bolts from microfasteners.com.

    I just compared the price of 1", 4-40, stainless steel, pan head, machine screws at Amazon, Fastenal and Micro Fasteners. These are the prices for 100.

    Amazon $7.49
    Fastenal $8.53
    MicroFasteners $6.40

    $5.29 at McMaster-Carr
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2012-10-09 20:38
    W9GFO wrote: »
    $5.29 at McMaster-Carr

    I wondered about McMaster-Carr but was too lazy to check. Thanks.
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2012-10-09 21:37
    W9GFO wrote: »
    $5.29 at McMaster-Carr

    The one thing that I don't like about McMaster (well, besides their shipping costs) is that their fancy website doesn't allow you to link to specific parts.
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