Sales by Product Line

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Sales by Product Line [Abstract]

Sales by Product Line

Note 11. Sales by Product Line

The percentages of our net sales by product line are as follows:

Type	Introduced	2014	2013	2012
Fasteners1	1967	40.2%	42.1%	44.0%
Tools	1993	9.3%	9.2%	9.3%
Cutting tools	1996	5.5%	5.4%	5.1%
Hydraulics & pneumatics	1996	7.2%	7.3%	7.6%
Material handling	1996	6.1%	5.7%	6.0%
Janitorial supplies	1996	7.3%	7.0%	6.6%
Electrical supplies	1997	4.7%	4.6%	4.7%
Welding supplies	1997	4.7%	4.5%	4.3%
Safety supplies2	1999	12.8%	11.2%	9.3%
Metals	2001	0.4%	0.5%	0.5%
Direct ship3	2004	1.0%	1.5%	1.6%
Office supplies	2010	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
Other		0.7%	0.9%	0.9%
		100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

¹  Fastener product line represents fasteners and miscellaneous supplies.

²  The safety supplies product line has expanded, as a percentage of sales, in the last several years due to our FAST Solutions^® (industrial vending) program.

³  Direct ship represents a cross section of products from the eleven product lines. The items included here represent certain items with historically low margins which are shipped directly from our distribution channel to our customers, bypassing our store network.