Sectors of the economy may be coming apart at the seams, but Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST), distributor of nuts, bolts and all kinds of tools, is holding together nicely. Fastenal reported strong numbers for 2Q 2008. Net sales increased 16% to $604,000. (Hey, I never said this stock would topple Home Depot). More importantly, net earnings increased 26% to $76,000 and diluted EPS increased 25% to $0.51. As part of its "Pathway to Profit Initiative," Fastenal opened 112 new stores in Q1 & Q2, bringing total store locations to over 2100.

Like most other businesses, Fastenal has been hit by both the slowdown in the construction industry and the rapid rise in fuel costs. The company is reorganizing its freight service to take advantage of fuel and cost savings by using its own trucking network rather than external service providers. Additionally, the company established a centralized call center to manage accounts receivable company-wide. As a result, accounts receivable increased 14% at the same time the company reduced its bad debt expense. Fastenal repurchased 200,000 shares with plans to buy back more. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.27 per share. YTD the stock has gained 14% and currently trades around $46. This one is worth a look.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is shutting down the call center support function for its retail website walmart.com. The question is whether the cut stems because Wal-Mart's website working well enough to not need human-powered support or because the company is merely shaving costs here? It's hard to imagine that a retail website the size and breadth of Wal-Mart's does not need a support function that connects human customers to a human support system, so that makes me think the company is shaving costs alone.

But, the retailer is saying that the Wal-Mart website has had so many improvements that live support is no longer needed. Okay, let's look at this: the world's largest online retailer, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) still offers live phone support, as it apparently believes there is still a need for some customers to talk to a person instead of wading through innumerable website support pages looking for answers. The answers are available, but can be hard to find.

Does Wal-Mart believe its website is superior to Amazon's or something? That makes for an interesting argument if you ask me. The human touch is a requirement for some customers, period. But, that number must be high enough to justify an in-house or outsourced help line, right?

Wal-Mart says that a majority of calls to the online help center were related to order tracking and that improvements have been made so that information is much easier to find on its website. As such, the help line is no longer needed. What about help for other types of questions? It is still hard to believe that Wal-Mart trusts so much in the superiority of its website that it believes no human support will ever be needed again.

[Update, 10-1-07, 6:12pm EDT: According to Wal-Mart officials, the call center for www.walmart.com is not closing. Per Wal-Mart: while we expect a reduction in the number of customer service calls given the enhancements and immediacy of the online self-help tool launched last week, we don't have plans to adjust our customer service staffing. In fact, we'll be increasing our staffing level with the upcoming holiday season.]