John Martin wrote:
Everyone seems to be singing the praises of Grainger, and I'm a bit
curious as to people's dealings with them.

Lots of places have "Trade Only" or "Commercial Accounts Only" on
the
door. Most, however, are willing to sell to anyone, as long as the
customer has a reasonable idea of what he wants. I've found the
local
Grainger - Portland, Maine - a bit on the rigid side on that policy.

Do you find most of the Grainger stores sell to walk-ins? No
mandatory minimum charges? How about by mail?

They're set up to sell to people who are either maintaining facilities
or manufacturing products--in the former case they assume that you're
looking for a replacement for an existing part, while in the latter
they're assuming that you're looking for something that was specified
by an engineer. As long as you act like you're in one of those
categories, i.e. have a part number and quantity or a sample of what
you need or a busted part you need to replace, there shouldn't be any
problem.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)