A retrospective about ENCO

[warmstrong1955]

Did he give back his key?

Huh.....maybe he didn't....and that's what happened to Enco....

[WesHowe]

My one takeaway from ENCO is their catalog. I still use it as a reference for various items and their "normal" prices. Things like drill bits and carbide inserts... when I see them on ebay (new old stock items, for example) I can see if it is a good deal or not.

Otherwise I feel like most of y'all about it. Given "economic democracy" (what I call free market trade) eventually someone will rediscover ENCO's practices and be rewarded with our business.

[GlennW]

We don't know why Enco was closed down.

Perhaps not, but it doesn't take much thought to determine that it was likely closed because the offered prices were attractive to the point where MSC sales suffered. I wouldn't doubt that the acquisition was for the sole purpose of killing the line. Wouldn't be the first time.

I believe that MSC acquired Enco around 1997...

It appears that a lot of people think that this happened recently.

[warmstrong1955]

We don't know why Enco was closed down.

Perhaps not, but it doesn't take much thought to determine that it was likely closed because the offered prices were attractive to the point where MSC sales suffered. I wouldn't doubt that the acquisition was for the sole purpose of killing the line. Wouldn't be the first time.

I believe that MSC acquired Enco around 1997...

It appears that a lot of people think that this happened recently.

Yup....1997. Enco didn't change much. If anything, it got better.....but alas.....
Interesting that it wasn't long after MSC bought J&L in 2006, that the J&L name went away. I got one "MSC/J&L" catalog, and then the announcement, no more J&L, and that was it.
MSC did the same after they bought Barnes Distribution too, but they rebranded them, Class C Solutions.

The only thing MSC is consistent at, with respect to acquisitions, is they are inconsistent.


Bill

[John Evans]

And MSC bought Rutland Tool 7-8 years ago,the SOBs! Early 90s ENCO had a Phoenix area branch. Rutland also had a Phoenix store and a Reno whse. Local didn't have just get it on a stock transfer ,no shipping and other than having to drive over to the store fast as UPS anyway.

[SteveM]

Companies that do this are many times using computers to track customer purchasing patterns to see how much they can milk out of a particular customer. No thanks!!! I will take my business elsewhere !

Not sure where you are going to go. Everyone is using computers to track purchasing patterns.

Here's something:
Do a search on ebay.
Do another search.
Look at the URL - it has the old search in the URL even if it has nothing to do with the new search.
They are not only tracking what you are looking at, but how your next search relates to your last one.

Here's another:
Have you ever seen cameras on store displays?

They take a picture of you when you walk in.
When you look at the stuff for sale on the end cap display, they do facial recognition and know that you looked at that end cap display.
They track how long you look at the end cap display.
When you look at something else, they do facial recognition and track that you looked at that end cap as well.
Cameras all around the store are tracking everywhere you go.
When you check out, they will know whether you bought something from that end cap display.
And the kicker is that if you play with a credit /debit card, now you aren't just a face, you're a number.

My guess is that you will only need to pay once with a card and they will have your face forever and can track you by number any time you go back to the store.

Steve

[neanderman]

Small amounts of material & some hand tools- drill rod, fasteners etc get purchased from McMaster-Carr. Not the best pricing, but I have the items the next day since I live right on the edge of their next day shipping zone. They also take care of any customer service issues without hesitation.

Honestly, McMaster is the bomb. If they don't have it, you don't need it.

As noted, their pricing is far from the lowest, but they got the goods!

[neanderman]

...eventually someone will rediscover ENCO's practices and be rewarded with our business.

To paraphrase someone recently, "Lordy I hope so!"

[JimGlass]

ENCO & MSC was a strange business arrangement where MSC was in competition with itself where identical items were always cheaper at ENCO. Anyone remember J & L Industrial? Another tool cataloge company MSC absorbed. Seems like MSC wants
all the tool business for themselves.

Yes, I miss ENCO. I would always surf previous orders to reorder the same items over and over. Not sure how I'll replace some items like carbide inserts.

This could also be a sign of our shrinking industrial base. Pretty sad

[Dave_C]

I guess I'm as much to blame as anyone for ENCO being gone!

I always waited for "free Shipping codes" I only bought when they had good sales or discounts and I never paid full price.

Some humor intended but the reality is, you can't expect them to stay in business if they can't make a decent profit.

Dave C.

[pete]

It's a bit OT from the original thread but I did read every post here and I can and do really sympathise with all of you in the U.S. But even at MSC's pricing you need to look at the shafting us Canadians usually get when buying tooling. Enco would at one time ship to Canaduh and I've ordered from them. That for some reason changed without explanation or notice even while making repeated requests for a catalog and offering to pay for it. They just ignored any emails. I would have loved the same deals you were getting from Enco even if I was paying for shipping. I was finally placing an order with Enco and asked for a catalog only to be told it and the order couldn't be completed once I told them I was in the great white north. My guess is that may have been somewhere on there website at the time but buried so deep I never noticed it. At one time I could do comparison shopping between U.S. prices at KBC Tools and there Canadian divison. That's now 100% blocked with any method I've tried with Google. I'd assume it's blocked from the U.S. to the Canadian website as well and maybe because of people like me complaining on forums like this about the price difference. MSC is a pain simply because of that stupid game of "up to ????% off". I did luck out and hit one of there 25% off sales that did apply to a Narex VHU-36 B&F head kit so it's a good example of Canadian to U.S. prices if things still hold true with KBC. Right now the money exchange between the Canuk buck and the U.S. is 22% against me. KBC's current Canadian price right now is $4954.80 for what I bought from MSC admittedly on sale and around 8 years ago for roughly $2500 Canadian when our dollar was about par with the U.S. Anybody up for checking the current U.S. price for me at KBC?

KBC used to use the same catalog numbers for both the U.S. and Canadian catalogs. For that Narex full kit it shows as 1-570-1036 I'd very much appreciate if someone in the U.S. would hit the KBC website and check there price for the same item. And it would be awesome to have access to what McMaster stocks like all of you can. However they refuse to sell to anyone in Canaduh who isn't already a long term account holder or possibly a new but real large corporation and maybe that might be acceptable. I really can't blame any U.S. company for refusing to ship up here because the border paperwork is very time consumeing and costly since we have that whole NAFTA "free trade" aggreement. My government has done such a fine job with that and done it so well many just won't ship here anymore. Most of Ebay refuses to as well. As high as MSC seems it's nothing like what were paying from tool suppliers up here and for industrial quality tooling KBC would be the largest player in Canada. As bad as it is here it's still nothing compared to the royal quality shafting the Australians are getting though. Most of my tooling has come from the U.S. even when the money exchange is against me, an extra B.C. HST of 12% taxes on imported goods, and the wallet rape Fedex or UPS adds for a piece of copy paper showing it went through a brokers office who never even looked at it. Then there's shipping plus more taxes on top of that. Plus a 2-4 week stay at Canadian Customs for a nice break. It still usually works out cheaper than buying up here.On average without factoring in the random money exchange issue I bet I pay at least 20-25% on top of MSC's high prices because most others won't ship here, but at least they would the last time I ordered from them. Yes Enco closing did hurt you guys, I really wish I could say the same.

[stephenc]

$3600 and some change here in the states