American Flags Fly Off The Shelves As New Yorkers Show Their Patriotism
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Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Americans have been scrambling to show their patriotism. NY1's Rick Elmhorst filed this report on a Manhattan flag company that is doing more business than ever.It's patriotic pandemonium at the National Flag and Display Company on East 42nd Street.
"Later on this morning I'm going to have all sorts of sizes and better quality flags," says William Ross Lindsay, whose company has gone from selling hundreds of American flags per week, to nearly a million.
By the Thursday after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Lindsay says the store was inundated with long lines and nonstop phone calls.
Some people are so desperate for U.S. flags that they're settling for rolls of flags they have to cut themselves.
Police are buying the red, white and blue by the box. Others, fearing a shortage, are giving up their own flags to police officers and firefighters.
"She was afraid that firefighters didn't have enough casket flags," Lindsay says. "She was an older woman and she wanted to donate her grandfather's flag."
Big companies are also getting into the spirit.
"Luckily they had the flags we needed," says John Willis, a Coca Cola employee. "But it wasn't easy, because everybody is flying flags."