In 1967, Bob Kierlin had an idea: start a business that sells nuts and bolts and other supplies, from vending machines planted on Lafayette Street. So the building was rented, and Kierlin got busy designing a machine that used the old style push and pull actuators to dispense the supplies. But before the machine was built, Kierlin soon found that folks were coming into the store asking for more boxes of those nuts and bolts than the machine would be able to hold, or for parts that were too big for the system. And Fastenal as we know it was born.
Forty-four years later, […]
