Dog Dollar Days; 'Euros Accepted' signs in NYC

[AYHJA]

"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City

In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise. "We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

"We didn't realize we would take so much in and there were that many people traveling or having euros to bring in. But some days, you'd be surprised at how many euros you get," Chu said.

"Now we have to get familiar with other currencies and the (British) pound and the Canadian dollars we take," he said.

While shops in many U.S. towns on the Canadian border have long accepted Canadian currency and some stores on the Texas-Mexico border take pesos, the acceptance of foreign money in Manhattan was unheard of until recently.

Not far from Chu's downtown wine emporium, Billy Leroy of Billy's Antiques & Props said the vast numbers of Europeans shopping in the neighborhood got him thinking, "My God, I should take euros in at the store."

Leroy doesn't even bother to exchange them.

"I'm happy if I take in 200 euros, because what I do is keep them," he said. "So when I go back to Paris, I don't have to go through the nightmare of going to an exchange place."

Source http://tinyurl.com/3dybno:
OP: ariarinen

[raum]

This is not a new sign of US dollar weakness. SEVERAL small and high-end businesses in New York take foreign currency and have for a long time. It is just becoming more prevalent.

Tiffany's has a currency accountant on hand to make cash conversions if you need them.

This is a step forward in customer service for foreigners. The personal transactions of foreigners do not negatively inflence our own currency, which is deposited, or better yet, saved so they can spend it on visits to europe.