Peerless 'Specialties' business structure might seem unrelated to the common eye, but in the more than 38 years that we have been serving our customers requests, we think that we have found our niche in the global market place that is as diversified as our specialties really are. In August, 1972, we assumed ownership of a commercial printing operation (Peerless Printing Company) which had been based in Altoona, PA for approximately 50 years. For diversity during the summer of 1982, we decided to open a stationery/gift shop on a seasonal basis in Ocean City, MD. One of our employees suggested we add balloons to our inventory to see if they had an appeal to those people vacationing at the beach. To our surprise, the balloons were very popular there. When we closed the doors at the end of the summer we realized we only had a few left over. We decided to bring those left over balloons back to Altoona to see if we could sell them over the winter months before returning to the shore. They sold and The Balloon Bag and Party Shoppe was created. Ten years later a balloon customer of ours was vacationing at another beach and saw decorative seasonal flags and asked if we would be interested in selling decorative flags for all the seasons. That "ten year itch" brought us to the inception of The Flag Station. That brought us to selling patriotic flags and flagpoles. As a side note, our non alcoholic wine business started as an outgrowth of The Balloon Bag and Party Shoppe. Over thirty years later we are still offering social stationery and announcements, balloons and balloon decorations, patriotic and decorative flags, and flagpoles as well as Premium Non Alcoholic Wines.