Who are you guys anyway? We've been in business since 1977 at the same location. We've lived here all our lives. Unlike big box retailers, we do know a great deal about the products we handle. So much so it is not uncommon for us to talk people out of ordering stuff that won't work for them. Your orders with us are handled personally which is one reason we do not use a shopping cart program. We have been able to fix a lot of mistakes before they happen because of the personal attention we can give to each order. I personally enter each order.

Call us and a live person answers. I hate those endless robot phone loops where you punch this and hit that and never get anywhere. If you catch us at a real busy moment we may ask to get a number so we can call you back rather than have you wait on hold. We will call you back.

Walk into our shop and you are waited on personally like in an old fashioned store from a couple generations ago. I always feel like Sam Drucker from the old Green Acres TV show. You can walk into our shop and buy one screw.

Can't make it to our shop during our hours? If we don't have to be somewhere we will stay a little late for you. Tell us what would work.

We do business the old fashioned way; We return phone calls. We count back change. I can't stand it when a clerk just hands you a wad of bills and coins and you are just supposed to get lost without knowing if your change is correct. Do clerks even know how to count back change anymore? We do.

I respond to appropriate e mail. If you did not get a response, we did not get your e mail. Or your e mail was inappropriate. The owner of this business personally answers the e-mail. Another one of my pet peeves is companies that do not respond to e mail. I find most do not even bother. REMEMBER, email is fairly unreliable. Just because you sent it and it did not bounce back, it does not necessarily mean that it got here.

Al Cavalari, Prop

Privacy Policy:

It is simple. We do not sell or rent your personal information to other companies. We only call you if we have a question about your order or if a piece of mail we sent to you comes back. Now and then I will call someone to follow up on something in which they had expressed an interest, or if some special deal comes along. Now a days, I am reluctant to provide even that service because of the Do Not Call list. Anyway, we sure don't solicit customers, or do what we all know as telemarketing.

Cookies: About the only thing I know about cookies is that my wife won't keep any in the house because I will eat them. My web site does not use cookies. If you got a cookie it did not come from us. And it sure didn't come from my wife. Same thing for adware, spyware, and malware. When you visit my web site, I do not track what you look at or where you go next on the internet highway.

SECURE ORDER FORM: We do NOT have one. We prefer to handle each order personally so we do not engage in e-commerce. We do not have an on-line ordering system. WE DO NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARD INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET. DO NOT EMAIL US CREDIT CARD INFORMATION EITHER IN AN EMAIL OR AS AN ATTACHMENT. E-mail is not secure. I will not accept credit card information sent to us on the internet. If you email me credit card information I will delete it. We have an order form on-line that needs to be printed out and faxed or mailed in.  We take orders on the phone, via fax or US mail. Or just walk into our shop. Sorry, I know these ordering methods are a drag for those of you who like to use shopping carts on the internet.

One of my customers coined a great term about how we operate: "Old fashioned high tech." It is a kind of combo situation.

1. RETURNS: There is a 15% restocking charge on returnable items. We'll happily take back brand new items returned to us post paid within 30 days of our ship date for exchange, refund or credit minus a 15% restocking charge.  Your invoice must accompany your return. A note explaining your reason would help us serve you better. Shipping/handling charges are not refundable. Not all items are returnable.

1) Due to our low prices, we can not accept returns, exchanges or refunds on anything purchased at a quantity discount or which may be labeled "clearance" or "closeout." Please don't buy a thousand items at a greatly reduced price and then want to return them. Not sure of what you want? Please buy just one and check it out. Dozen or gross prices constitute quantity discounts.

2) Flags 8x12' and larger are NOT returnable: CHECK YOUR SIZE before ordering.

3) Custom work and flagpoles of all types are not returnable, money paid on them are not refundable. If these have a manufacturing defect we will fix or replace at our option.

4) Halyard (rope) is not returnable

5) Stick flags, desk flags, flags mounted on a staff, stick or pole are not returnable.

If after using a product you believe it to be defective, please call or write. We are very serious about your satisfaction with us. You work hard for your money and we want you to feel that you received excellent value for it.

2.DEADLINES: Let us help! Please make your event dates know UP FRONT. Orders in stock usually ship within 1 working day. Even out of stock items usually ship within 6-15 working days. If you have a deadline ORDER WITH US BY PHONE AND CREDIT CARD ONLY to determine if the products you need can be supplied in a timely manner. Meeting some deadlines can of course require extra shipping/handling charges. Your event dates are very safe in our hands because we are very specific and never promise anything we can't deliver. REMEMBER, WE CAN'T HELP YOU WITH YOUR EVENT DATE IF WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT OR IF WE DON'T GET YOUR ORDER IN TIME!

3. DAMAGED SHIPMENTS: Merchandise confirmed lost or damaged will be paid for by the carrier - not you. If your order should arrive damaged, we want to help. Be sure to note directly on the carrier's receipt any damage to the carton. Save it and all packing material for inspection by the carrier. If you accept visibly damaged shipments or opened cartons and fail to note this, your ability to receive credit will be compromised.

4. CHECKS: We accept checks under the terms that the issuer agrees to pay a $20 fee on any check returned to us for ANY reason. Checks with unreadable signatures or lacking pre-printed addresses will delay orders. Checks used in our shop need to have a pre printed NY state address with NY drivers license. No checks in shop over $300. Mail order checks may be held for clearance before shipping but they may be from anywhere.

5. FOREIGN ORDERS: Payments by Visa, MasterCard or international money order in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank only please. Any customs fees or taxes are the sole responsibility of the purchaser. Unless you specify a shipping method, we will use the least expensive insurable or registerable method and add these costs to your credit card total. Contact us for a freight quote if you are not using a credit card.

The simple part is this:

We only collect sales tax for things purchased in our shop or for orders we deliver within New York State.

After that, it can get complicated unless everyone follows the rules.

We must collect your local NY State sales tax on the amount in the "Sub-total #2" box on our order form. There is no tax on USA and New York State flags and flag kits. Exempt organizations must have form ST119.1 properly completed and on file with us before we will exempt the transaction from tax. A tax number alone does not satisfy the law and makes us liable for penalties unless we collect the tax. You are not allowed to just say "we are tax exempt." Please remember there is a difference between a FEDERAL tax exempt number and a NEW YORK STATE SALES TAX exempt number. Combined shipping and handling are taxable . . . sorry, we checked with NY State. Everything we tell you about sales tax is based on decades of research. Everything we tell you can be checked out for yourself with NY State. We understand other businesses do not properly collect sales tax. We know you've "been doing it that way for twenty years." None the less, everything we tell you about sales tax is in writing from NY State. I can show it to you.

Here is their web site: The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance

Sorry, I do know more about sales tax than national chains who issue the phony sales tax exempt ID cards customers have shown me. I also unfortunately know more about sales tax even than some accountants, school district business managers, town clerks, and mayors. I understand your mayor said that your garden club could use the village's tax exempt status. Sorry, but your mayor is wrong. Sometimes I wish I did not know so much about sales tax because people get mad at us when we tell them that their mayor or business manager or fire company treasurer is wrong. After all, in the eyes of the customer, who knows more about sales tax? The official saying it does not have to be paid, or The Flag Guys saying it must be collected? However, if you think I am wrong about sales tax, please show me why the information I am showing you in writing from NY State is incorrect. After all, the information is in their words, not mine. Please just don't say "everyone else does it that way." Sorry, but "everyone else" can be wrong. It can happen.  Don't believe me? Call up the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, give them your name and address and tell them why you have not been paying sales tax for twenty years. I bet they will be very interested in hearing from you.

Here is their web site: The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance

1) Having a proper ST119.1 form but trying to use a personal check or personal credit card. NY State does not allow that practice even if you will be "paid back later" by funds from the exempt organization. If you use a check or credit card they have to be from the organization as named on your form.

2) Having an ST119.1 form that has been filled out with your FEDERAL ID number. This is probably the single most common misconception we encounter. You see, the ST119.1 form we are required to collect from you is blank when you get it from NY State. Organizations fill them out themselves. A perhaps well meaning volunteer fills one out ages ago with a federal number and members use it all over town to make purchases without paying sales tax. A federal number on a state form simply does not comply. Remember, The Federal Government and The New York State government are two distinct and separate taxing authorities. We can not accept a state form with a federal number. If we do and later show it to The State, we have a big problem.

So there the customer stands in our shop with a document that appears to have come from NY State and we have tell him it is invalid. But remember, that document started out in life as a BLANK form. Sure, it has the NY State letterhead and logo and all of that on it. But the INFORMATION someone filled in there is non compliant. You could fill your high school locker combination in there where the EX number is supposed to go but that does not make it compliant! Think of all those tax forms you can get at any post office. You can fill them in with all kinds of numbers, but that does not make for a valid tax return.

 Don't have an ST119 certificate? Then your organization may not even have ever applied for the status of a sales tax exempt organization. Yup, I have also seen that situation. If you do have that status, then you were issued an ST119. Remember, just because you are a 501(3)c corporation for Federal Tax purposes, it does not mean that you ever got the status of an exempt organization for NY State Sales Tax purposes. Those are two very different things.

We often ask people using a federal number on a state form to simply show us their state issued ST119 certificate. No one ever has.

3) Thinking a purchase is tax exempt based on who will be using the item. Just because your organization is buying something "for the school" does not exempt the sale from tax. What matters in the eyes of The State is the concept of "the payer of record." If you buy a widget for your school and pay with your funds, you are the payer of record and the sale is taxable unless you document its tax exempt status in a compliant manner. I heard it put so well one time during one of my many research inquiries with a NY State Sales Tax specialist. He said, "the school district is tax exempt. The people in the district are taxable." If your booster club or parent organization buys a banner for the school football team, The State requires that you document your organization's tax exempt status by using an ST119.1 form and paying with your organization's funds. If the school district issues a purchase order and buys the banner for the football team, the sale is not subject to sales tax. The school district is in that case the "payer of record." The school district is not taxable. You are.