Purchasing common/standard/generic parts and pieces, supplies, and consumeables

Well, it's really hard to beat Digikey, I had the greatest experience with them this week. I'm in the Montreal Canada area and they are in Thief River Falls MN. I ordered a bunch of amazing items (you'll be seeing some of them soon) on Monday at 8:30 am. They were delivered to my house on Tuesday at 11:30 am. Keep in mind that they had to pass through Canadian customs before getting sent to the FedEx depot and then put on a truck for residential delivery. I'd say 27 hours to deliver an international order is amazing, and the shipping was free!

Mouser is also very good, very much like Digikey.

Of course, you already know about Amazon, I use them a lot. Next day delivery and free shipping if you have Amazon Prime. I have made over 200 orders from them in 2020, and will probably make another one today.

I like RobotShop, they also deliver the next day, but I happen to be only 20km from their Canadian store so that may not apply to everyone.  Free shipping over 75 bucks.

Pimoroni in the UK has always been one of my favorites, shipping is by Royal Mail so delivery time is a bit longer. No free shipping though.

If I lived in the US I would be shopping more at Sparkfun and Adafruit, I have ordered from them here but the shipping and duty charges are usually about half the cost of the order. So I buy their stuff at Digikey, RobotShop, and Pimoroni.

We also have a few well-stocked electronics stores here in Montreal, but because of the pandemic, I am unable to shop at them.  One of them, Abra, does ship to Canada and the US but they take forever to get the order together and they don't work on weekends. These places are where I used to buy a lot of "electronics consumables" but I prefer to shop for those in person, so it may be a few years until I can get back to them.

Hope some of that was useful!

😎

Bill

@dronebot-workshop thanks for the unexpectedly quick response.  I appreciate it.

The recommendations you made are the type of information I was looking for.  Drills down right to the heart of the matter, and why.  I'd forgotten about Mouser, and all the other names were new to me.  So its all good.  As I am located in the US, I'll be keen on looking at how the international sites compare.

I live in a town big enough to enjoy a Costco, but local electronics stores are a thing of the past.  Nearest brick-and-mortar is at least 150 miles from here, and the inventory there is remarkably paltry.  But they can have it tomorrow!  So can I, and save the drive.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Jim

Do you guys think Mom and Pop electronic stores are dead and cannot come back?

I use to go to Fry's but they are empty now. I now order through Alibaba and Amazon but it's waiting for them to come in seems to be a big pain. Am I just too old-fashioned to want to go into the store and get it right away? 

@hacker

The following is much easier to read than the way you presented it.  Hope you don't mind me reposting in a form that is easier to read:

Do you guys think Mom and Pop electronic stores are dead and cannot come back?

I use to go to Fry's but they are empty now. I now order through Alibaba and Amazon but it's waiting for them to come in seems to be a big pain. Am I just too old-fashioned to want to go into the store and get it right away?

No, I don't mind. Thanks for the help.

I ordered the Elegoo Starter Kit from Amazon Canada because it's the only place I could find it online, although it's going to take two weeks to send out!

I've bookmarked some of the names listed above, but shipping to Canada will be an issue.