The new McFeelys

[tdacon]

Anybody been shopping online at McFeelys's

since Jim McFeely sold it? What do you think?

Tom

[dpb]

That's only been--what? 8-10 years now? I've no complaints since.

[tdacon]

?That's only been--what? 8-10 years now? I've no complaints since.

No, I'm talking about the recent sale - just a few months ago. Perhaps I was wrong about the details of the sale, but it was said that "Jimbo was staying on as a consultant for a while," so I assumed that it was McFeely himself who'd sold it to them. The new owners have a sort of clunky new web site, and did not manage to retain any of the older customers' accounts or purchase histories. In fact, when they reopened they posted a message on the site telling customers to contact them (!) to get new accounts set up so that they could shop there. Since then they've finally set it up so that you can create an account during the purchase process.

Tom

[dpb]

I forget who it was, but McFeely himself hasn't been owner for ages. I wasn't aware it had been resold recently; I've returned to the family farm and so do quite a lot less so hadn't had reason to purchase much recently.

Sorry for making the assumption of _which_ sale...

[Leon]

Yeah many times, Granger has owned McFeeleys for quite a few years now.

I think it is pretty much the same other than offering much more that screws and hardware.

[Leon]

Yeah that was not recent. Jimbo was staying on after FcFeeley sold out many years ago.

[dpb]

I'd forgotten it was Grainger-owned outfit--it always seemed so strange when they did it but I couldn't recall just why. It's because when WWG bought McFeely they did it thru Lab Safety Services subsidiary--it seemed so incongruous a product with the name. But, they've since change to another overall name entirely and have a "veritable plethora" of brands rolled in there...

AFAIK, however, I agree that there's not been a resale recently altho and after some looking I find no evidence of same...

[Ed Pawlowski]

It will be OK as long as they don't copy the Grainger web site format. It is much more difficult to find what you need on the Grainger site compared to McMaster.

Want to compare prices? Put the McMaster part number into the Grainger search box and it will bring it up. Most times McMaster is cheaper.

[dpb]

On 08/03/2014 6:01 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote: ...

Really? I've always thought McM-C was "the high-priced spread" for stuff I tended to look at. But, often, they were about the only source altho WWG has certainly expanded their line card.

I've not done any comparison pricing recently, though, granted...

[krw]

Yeah, I've found the web site to be a huge step backwards. It's never been good for tools, and such, but even finding screws is a PITA now. It used to be pretty good, allowing search by material, head, driver style, or just about anything. It's a lot harder to find anything now and I found them to be out of stock on many common items.

Hadn't even noticed that, only the horrible web site.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Recently bought a couple of motor starters and Grainger was $40 higher. Squirrel cage blower and motor was a big difference, and others I've checked in recent months.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Wow! Kind of horrible. I used to buy two or three types of screws from them . Even got a nice wall hanging container thing to hold the various sizes wi th labels. Just spent 10 minutes and can't even come close to finding the s crews I liked so much. I hate those long fricking catalog pages and no abil ity to filter by attributes.

Sad to see a nice business go headlong into the dirt like that.

[Leon]

Here is what I do, I buy loads of screws from them as needed. I have similar steel bin drawers and tear the part number off of the box of screws and put it at the bottom of the screws in the bin. When I get low I reorder by that part number in the bin.

[tdacon]

Well, I had this ownership chain (and the original owner's name!) all wrong. It was Bill McFeely who started it back in the 70's. He sold it to Grainger some years ago (maybe 8 or 10 years ago, per dpb elsewhere in this thread)

Grainger sold it on , along with two other brands, in December 2013 -

I don't know who "Jimbo" is, but he's apparently the guy who's staying on with the new owners as a consultant for a while. Maybe he was the personality who was the face of the site while Grainger owned it. The newest owners opened for business on Jan 1, 2014, and it's this new ownership and their new web site I was asking for reactions to. I haven't been real thrilled with the way their site is working, and it irritated me that they lost the records of old customers and their orders. Searching for products and placing orders is a real trial, too.

Here are a couple links on the topic from the SawMill Creek forum. Others besides myself have been a little out of sorts with the new site since then. Here's one link:

and here's another on the same forum:

Tom

[Leon]

Thanks for the update. Jimbo was the guy that seemed to know what was going on when McFeeley still owned the company. The site IMHO really has not changed much except but I did notice that the $1 shipping on any order went away about 6 months ago, that was probably a result of the new company ownership.

To tell you the truth I have never ever really been impressed with the site when compared to the catalog that comes by snail mail.

[dpb]

Well, from the other forum link I guess it was sold, but the article above certainly doesn't include it in the divestiture; it's mentioned as part of the specialty products group (formerly Lab Safety Services) as knew, but the group wasn't listed as one of the brands being sold. Perhaps it was another deal...

"Jimbo" is another McFeely; I presume the son of the Bill who was killed sometime in the mid-80s in an accident in the mill shops the were running at the time. He's been the face for all the catalogs and all since I first heard of them in the late 80s about when they began the newsletter and catalogs and advertising in FWW (which is, I think, where first heard of 'em).

No mention, however, of who parent company currently is.

[Mike]

Funny. I always thought he was a cartoon character like Home Depot's Homer.