Metals 'R' Us vs McKinnon Metals: build-a-quote or see-the-price?

Should you buy from McKinnon Metals or Metals 'R' Us?

If you're a GTA shop sending the same cut list every month, McKinnon Metals' build-a-quote model is built for you: assemble the list, they price it back, and the account relationship does the rest. If you want the price before the conversation, that's us: every length has a listed number, cut free to ±1/8″, shipped anywhere in Canada with the rate showing in the cart.

McKinnon is a long-standing supplier in Woodbridge, Ontario, and as of June 2026 their site works on a build-a-quote and quick-order basis with no public price list. So, like every quote-model comparison, this is about fit, not a sticker shootout. We sell metal too; read it with that in mind. The whole Canadian field sits in one honest map here.

Where does McKinnon Metals beat Metals 'R' Us?

The repeat list. Build-a-quote is a clean mechanic for trade buying: you assemble the items once, the quote comes back priced as a package, and next month's order is a re-send. Volume gets a human's judgment instead of a tier table, will-call pickup serves the local trade, and an account that knows your shop saves you re-explaining the job every order. For a fabricator inside their delivery range, that's a real working relationship, and it's how most of the industry has bought metal for a century.

There's also the breadth a quote desk can say yes to. A list-based model doesn't need every item priced on a webpage to sell it, so odd sections and one-off sourcing fold into the same quote instead of becoming a separate conversation.

Where does Metals 'R' Us beat McKinnon Metals?

The first order, the small order, and the long-distance order. There's no list to build and no reply to wait for: the price for a 23″ piece of 1″ 6061 is on the page when you type 23. Our July 2026 six-piece test basket (aluminum, steel, stainless, brass) came to $141.42 with live shipping shown before payment: $59.23 to Toronto on that exact cart. Order by 1pm Atlantic on a business day and your pieces are usually cut and packed the next business day. That's what normally happens, not a guarantee, and how fast it lands after that is the service you pick at checkout.

Exact lengths are the other half. Per-inch pricing from 1″ to 96″ means prototype quantities cost prototype money, and the $40 minimum is the only floor. Certs travel with the metal when you ask: MTRs are available on request down to a single cut piece, which matters the day a drawing says "with cert" and the order is one bar.

How do you choose between McKinnon Metals and Metals 'R' Us?

Count your orders per month and measure your distance from Woodbridge. Weekly GTA volume into the same shop: build the quote relationship, McKinnon's model exists for exactly that, and loyalty there pays. Occasional, small, specific, or far away: the listed price wins on speed and certainty, and the per-inch model keeps short parts cheap. Plenty of Ontario shops sensibly do both: an account for bar volume, and a listed-price store for the odd exact piece the account supplier would rather not saw.

Want your list priced our way for the comparison? Send it through a quote request: CAD, cuts included, usually same day, and you'll have both numbers side by side.