Grainger's official company policy is "business-to-business" only.
However, in talking with the manager of my local branch, he said that
if you walk into almost any office, ask for a part by number from
their catalog and pay cash, they will *not* refuse your money.  As an
individual, you will be limited to perusing their catalog while in
their store, they will not give you one.  This is quite a chore since
it is about 3" thick and close to 3000 pages, but if you know
generally what you want, it is very well indexed.

Grainger is *not* a mail order place, you must deal with a local
office which will be listed in your local white pages phone book.

Another excellent source of equal magnitude is McMaster Carr.  They
*will* do mail order and accept credit cards.  Don't expect to get a
catalog from them unless you open an account and spend $1000's of
dollars a year with them.  However, their sales representatives are
more then happy to discuss your needs on the phone and look through
the catalog to find what you want.  The only problem with this is that
paging through their catalog is educational and may inform you of
something you did not know existed and hence would never ask for on
the phone.  McMaster-Carr 310-692-5911 in Santa Fe Springs, CA.

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From davef@teleport.com

Grainer is a great company to do business with.  Just call in your
order and tell them to put it in will call.  Give them the name of
your employer or probably any local company and tell them your making
an employee purchase.  Also give them your personal credit card no and
you can pick up your order in will call.  I think they are simply
trying to avoid a lot of walk in customers asking to buy onesy twosy
hardware store items