Acklands-Grainger downsizing

Bennyyb said:
I am in the mechanical contracting business and Acklands has tried dozens of times to get our business, and I had to let them know every time that their prices were 20-30% higher then the competitor. I wont miss them.
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This. I've always avoided them like the plague unless I was working somewhere remote where they were the only game in town or they were the only one in town that had something I needed right that minute. Every place I've worked loathed cutting them a cheque unless we were on a cost plus job.
 
The only reason we still deal with them was their being located everywhere.

Their prices have been generally high for at least the 25 years i've been purchasing from them, but for at least the last 10 years they have been laughably high for most things.

It's only funny when we didn't need to get it from them due to a lack of competition though, then it's just angry resignation.

Just phone your salesman and negotiate a price, and ship from distribution point doesn't work when i need 25 of something 20 minutes ago ...
 
I used to do a lot of purchasing for the company I used to work for. We used to buy from Acklands quite often. The corporate discount on some items was pretty ridiculous, but it was dependent on what the company bought through them. For example, welding tools and supplies were cheap because we used a lot, but anything machine tool related was basically list price.

Some items were around the 50% discount from list price. It made them noticeably cheaper than some of the other places we dealt with.

I always found them quite easy to deal with, they were good with filling backorders and we had very few issues with deliveries. Returns were fairly easy and they didn't argue about them.
 
They deal mostly with accounts. Walk-in prices are ridiculous. If you buy lots prices are OK. The internet prices if you have an account and log in are better than their store prices. I think that shows you where they’re going in regards to having store fronts. They do have an obscene amount of products they can bring in. Just about anything you can think of. My local location is staying open. Hopefully for a long time.
 
I have never shopped there because if a company won't show their prices for things I sure won't ask because their prices are obviously not competitive and i'll just take my business elsewhere
 
Lead hammer said:
We used to use them where I worked.
But a few years ago I tried to order something and it was a no go cause I was not a business.
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That wouldn't surprise me as they are extremely large and cater to larger orders from businesses. I haven't used them in awhile and when I did, I used a company name and had the stuff shipped to a NY address where I was working then.
 
ssapach said:
I used to do a lot of purchasing for the company I used to work for. We used to buy from Acklands quite often. The corporate discount on some items was pretty ridiculous, but it was dependent on what the company bought through them. For example, welding tools and supplies were cheap because we used a lot, but anything machine tool related was basically list price.

Some items were around the 50% discount from list price. It made them noticeably cheaper than some of the other places we dealt with.

I always found them quite easy to deal with, they were good with filling backorders and we had very few issues with deliveries. Returns were fairly easy and they didn't argue about them.
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This echoes my experience, they were a go to place here. Our local store closed down coming up on a year ago, they are missed!
 
Nothing in their online catalog was ever properly cross indexed. Then when you called the local store the .. answering would say 'ya gotta part number?'.Or: ' Montreal - 3 days' which around here is code for f off bud. McMaster Carr - I would not deal with them because of their UPS shipping. Still 100 times better than A-G. Pretty much have to take up walking on the shoulders of truck routes in this area to find rare pieces of hardware.

Was the FN Sports guy connected to A-G? :p
 
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IronCanadian said:
The one and only time I stopped there to get anything was at the suggestion of a friend; they told me they don't deal with the public.
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Same thing here. They were obviously overpriced too. I could always order through work but since they won't take my business otherwise I've been spending my money elsewhere. So did most other people, hence them closing 50 stores.
 
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