Hampton Bays - Standing in his office in Hampton Bays' Shinnecock Hardware, Tom Maloney is literally and virtually surrounded. Six screens - Apple monitors, PC monitors, a wide-screen television displaying the company's security cameras - hug the room's perimeter, along with a diverse collection of sports memorabilia hanging on the walls. Notes with names and numbers on ripped sheets of paper are taped on the backs of two office chairs, the seats of which are filled with more papers and product magazines.

As Maloney - co-owner of Shinnecock Hardware for the past 32 years with his older brother, Rob (who operates their Southampton store) - stands in front of his desk, he clicks on one of the screens as he talks on the phone. The scene may resemble one at many an office: businessman on the phone, multitasking at a computer, papers taking up any visible surface area in the room. But what separates Maloney's office from most others is that inside the computer he operates sits 85,000-plus products his company sells online. This October marks the first birthday of Shinnecock Hardware's website, www.acetogo.com.

"I've always been into technology," he said. "And I've always wanted to start an online business."

Maloney got his first taste of e-commerce close to 15 years ago when he started selling objects on eBay in its infancy stage. After clearing out his garage one day, Maloney was having a yard sale with his wife when he noticed a few underpriced objects on the lot for 50 cents. On a whim, he decided to take a photo of a duck decoy box, write a quick description, and post it online. A few hours later, it sold for $250. Maloney was officially an online vendor.

Tom Maloney, co-owner of Shinnecock Hardware, multitasks in his office on a weekday morning. "I've always been into technology," Maloney said. "And I've always wanted to start an online business."

"I've sold to every state in the union," Maloney said, recalling his eBay days. "And I've been asked to send to Eurpoe, South America and China with this site - it's too much of a process, though. We're still getting some of the bugs out, but anything has some bugs when you have 85,000 items."

Amit Bhiaya, president of Dotcomweavers, Inc., created the website last summer for Shinnecock Hardware and has continued to offer his services far past the three months the contract between the two demands. Of approximately 250 clients Bhiaya has built sites for, he places Maloney in the top five in terms of pleasure and ease to work with.

"I wish every client I had was like Tom," he noted in a phone interview. "For the most part, he left me alone, let me do my job, and came back when I was done. In this business, the key is trust and communication, and Tom trusted us. It's not easy for a lot of companies to do, especially when they put up a lot of money to create a sophisticated website like Tom's."

In the year that Shinnecock Hardware's site has been live, it has done 982 orders online, with sales rising in recent months. Maloney admits it's going to take some time before the site pays for itself, but as Bhiaya points out, Shinnecock Hardware wouldn't be able to make sales in Florida and Colorado if it weren't online. Going into year number two, Maloney hopes to improve on his first year numbers and continue his e-commerce dream. Looking forward, he sees plenty of room for www.acetogo.com to grow.

"We haven't even touched the tip of the iceberg," he said.