Fastenal?

[Commander_Chaos]

Anybody use these guys? There's one near my work but they seem to have almost nothing in stock. Every once in a while I'll get on their website hoping to save some time but it hasn't worked out yet. Not sure why they have storefronts when they always tell me they have to order it. I can already order from mcmaster-carr or grainger.

[toolznthings]

Stay with your current suppliers. You'll be happier.

[Old School]

I found that they are really only dealing with business accounts and don't really want the walk in type customers. I did get them to sell me some self driving screws but had to buy a whole bag of like 100 screws.

[Mcgyver]

they're awful....but close by.

[nc5a]

I agree with Old School. They seem to be geared to supporting larger accounts and aren't really interested in the little guy. And, Fastenal in Anchorage AK has very little in stock and their prices are very high.

[wierdscience]

At work we call them Fastensome 🤣

[brian Rupnow]

My son works for Fastenal, and they are not really interested in selling onesies and twosies to individuals. They have large corporate customers (factories) that move thousands of fasteners each week. Each member of the sales and stocking team visit these factories once or twice a week and ensure that their fastener bins are full of inventory, and it is all kept track of by computers.

[mickeyf]

The one here didn't even want to talk to you unless you had a business account. I was able to get 100 packs of some very garden variety bolts using my then-employer's account, but, yeah, they're generally a last resort. My go-to place is now Fastener Force. I can walk in and they will happily sell me a single metric set screw, but I think they are strictly a local company here.

[Commander_Chaos]

I get the focus of the business being large customers, but why have the storefront?

[epicfail48]

I get the focus of the business being large customers, but why have the storefront?

Rope in contractors and the like, probably

[JRouche]

And they are not the cheapest joint in town. My local has a pretty good inventory but the prices were awful. JR

[psomero]

Anybody use these guys? There's one near my work but they seem to have almost nothing in stock. Every once in a while I'll get on their website hoping to save some time but it hasn't worked out yet. Not sure why they have storefronts when they always tell me they have to order it. I can already order from mcmaster-carr or grainger.

Their whole business model is their distribution network and retail storefronts. Local sales reps work out of the storefronts to service a territory and its customers. Your experience will vary wildly depending on the specific personnel staffing a specific location, and they have poor quality control on their personnel.

I have had some superb service experiences with local reps, but most of the time they're braindead. In another town, I had an apprentice basically give them a stocking contract including a BOM of all of the fasteners we wanted and pre-loaded, pre-labeled lista or vidmar cabinets that all they had to do was check and charge our company, and the idiots couldn't even be bothered to call us back.

They run a decent stocking program if you have a facility that needs supplies of fasteners, cutters, etc on hand and want someone to come maintain it instead of doing it yourself. They don't stock much at most storefronts given the broad nature of their catalog. They used to offer an LTL freight shipping service, but apparently had given that up recently.

They also had gotten in trouble for price gouging stuff on retail customers, where they were charging a shipping and processing fee on materials they had on hand already in the storefront, and it wasn't clear to the walk-in customer, in violation of certain local statues that prohibit this opaque price gouging technique. California slapped them down for that recently: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/...en-surcharges/

[brian Rupnow]

They used to maintain a storefront here in Barrie. A few years ago they shut down the store front and changed their focus away from selling to individuals. There were three different fastener companies in Barrie, Fastenal, Brafasco, and Bolts Plus. I think there was probably one company too many in a city of 150,000 people. There seems to be enough business to maintain two fastener companies here selling to individuals.

[BCRider]

There's two storefronts in the lower mainland. I had a name of me account at one of them and had no issues buying in boxes of 100 to build up stock. And at one point I ordered up around $80 of O rings in a variety of sizes in 50 ring packs. But that wasn't good enough apparently. One day I walked in to buy another $80 to $100 in boxes of screws and bolts only to be told that they only handled commercial accounts. Up to that point I'd likely spent around $500 to $600. Given that I spent $80 to $100 each time I asked if I could I start an account. I was told that I could not without a proper business name and number.

To his credit the guy was apologetic but it didn't change the fact that they lost probably a further $1000 or so that I've spent over the years since then. And it's not like I was a high maintenance customer. I rarely ordered up anything and mostly just took what they had on hand.

I'd say something nasty about the decision makers at the heat office but George would have to edit it out.... And he's too nice a moderator to put that on him...

[JRouche]

Well. I dont like to poo poop on any company's, so,,,

I had worked with Grainger for years. Yes, Years,,, my account. Had one with Fastenal also.

Those SOBs opened a branch right across the road fron Grainger.

I still walked into my Granger Store and ordered up, JR