[2] The company was founded in 1901 and is based in Elmhurst, Illinois, with distribution centers in Robbinsville, New Jersey; Santa Fe Springs, California; Douglasville, Georgia and Aurora, Ohio.

[3][4] A new distribution center and regional headquarters began construction in May 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas, with completion expected in 2027.

[15] McMaster-Carr's website ranked third among e-commerce sites in a 2002 study performed at Stanford University about trust and credibility, just behind Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Web developers in social media recognized the website for its heavy optimization towards speed and performance, even though it uses outdated JavaScript libraries.

In 2015 McMaster-Carr was recognized by customers, in a survey by B2B business reviewer VendOp, as one of the top B2B vendors in the United States in multiple categories.