Platt Electric Supply — Local services in Watsonville

There's good and bad in everything, Platt is no exception. First the good: Pricing is competitive once you help them to realize where the prices should be. Stock, for the most part, is good and you can pick up most of what you need if you're a professional in the trade. It's really nice to have a full service honest to God electrical wholesaler in Watsonville, and not have to go north to Capitola / Soquel, or South to seaside and Monterey.

And the bad; The biggest shortcoming I've found so far is lack of knowledgeable counter people. Speaking as a 15-year veteran of wholesaling, it takes roughly 2 to 3 years to make a capable counterperson from somebody who knows nothing walking in. Platt does not have people with that base of knowledge yet. I have to check every order every time, and I would say 15-20% of the time I'm asking them to exchange the wrong part for the thing that I wanted. This can also lead to getting a ridiculously overspec'd part. If I ask for a Ford, I generally don't need a Tesla. This leads to my other major gripe: seemingly minimal local input on stock. They're very good at bringing in parts not on the local stores shelf, but I'm not sure how much control the local store has over what goes on the shelf in the first place. Like most of the wholesale world at this point they're operating from a distribution center model. That means centralized purchasing. Fine if the purchasing people have the experience to know what the trade needs versus what the vendors want to sell. Can go either way.

Hard to argue with the convenience. The mobile app works well and I can depend on the pricing in it for the most part (see my observation above regarding pricing). Considerable upside potential going forward so I'll stick with them and try to do what I can to help...

I was impressed by the exceptional service at Platt Electric Supply. The staff was friendly, patient and went above and beyond to assist me with my off-grid power system. When I asked what they had in stock for enclosures, Andy led me into their warehouse area and showed me all the...

Every location I've been in have great employees who will help you find whatever you need. Even in the rare occasion they...