FAST vs ET Comparison

Fastenal began as an industrial retailer, expanding its product portfolio from nuts and bolts to cutting tools, safety equipment, and janitorial supplies. It transitioned into a distributor by building out a dense network of branches close to its business customers. Once a customer becomes large enough, Fastenal installs vending machines and its own personnel on-site. Today, these on-site locations exceed Fastenal's branch count and remain the firm's main focus for expansion. Fastenal acts as a one-stop outsourcing partner for its industrial customers, offering value-added services along with a wide breadth of maintenance, repair, and operations supplies.

Energy Transfer owns one of the largest portfolios of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids midstream assets in the US, primarily in Texas and the US midcontinent region. Its system includes more than 12,000 miles of intrastate pipelines and 20,000 miles of interstate pipelines. It also owns gathering, processing, and storage facilities in the largest US oil and gas producing regions. Other businesses include a network of natural gas liquids and refined products facilities, 18,000 miles of crude oil pipelines, and the Lake Charles gas liquefaction facility. Energy Transfer combined its publicly traded limited and general partnerships in October 2018.