Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City
Wed Feb 6, 2008

NEW YORK (Reuters) - 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."

(Reporting by Angela Moore, writing by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Have you been to New York City? (or as they so arrogantly refer to it, "The City") It's hard to find anyone there who speaks English.

This is not intended as a NYC bashing post. Just the truth as I've experienced it.

The Few. The Proud.
Jerry D.

My job takes me all over the country and I find that to be a growing problem...its getting tuff to find a fast food joint that has an English speaking crew. There and everywhere else.

Looking back on 2001, Saddam was trying to buy Euros and make the euro as the standard and Osama had planes flown into the WTC to wreck the US economy. Sounds like we are doing their work for them, just fine thank you very much.

Years ago I was in Detriot interviwing former Governor George Romney. We went across into Canada to eat. When we went to pay the bill with a 20, the owner first gave me 22 in Canadian money. Then I paid the bill.
Probably work the other way around today.

I tried to switch my internet and I couldn't understand the person so I gave up. I received a call-back and the guy asked me if I was having trouble understanding the English of the first guy. The problem was, his wasn't any better.

quote:

Originally posted by 031153:
Years ago I was in Detriot interviwing former Governor George Romney. We went across into Canada to eat. When we went to pay the bill with a 20, the owner first gave me 22 in Canadian money. Then I paid the bill.
Probably work the other way around today.
.

is that near DETROIT???

just discovered that romney went to CRANBROOK ACADEMY.
my LIONS used to use that for pre-season training camp. i stayed there for 2 preseasons ..'57, '58.

fancy azzed place set up for the ULTRA - RICH.

my wife gets all farked up with money exchanging. about 10 years ago we took a way home to michigan by going through buffalo into niagra and across to port huron/sarnia. handed the casino man a $100 and he gave me back around $115 canadien. my wife thought that was pretty neat... figured if we gave him a bunch more, OUR TRIP WOULD BE FOR FREE.
she's so smart in so many ways but 3 things she can't comprehend....money exchange, MPH/ KPH speed conversion and metric measurements.

quote:

Then I paid the bill.
Probably work the other way around today.

I guess if a business wants to exchange both cash, I am sure people will work out the conversion each time the value changes. My question is, isn't this unfair to other countries cash exchanges, you know how PC culture reacts to everything, such as language and demanding a translator?

I remember being stationed in the UK back in the early 80's. At one point the British pound was so weak that we could use dollars in London 1 for 1. I think it is somewhere around 2 dollars for GBP now or close to it.

So I guess we are getting some of what other countries have had to deal with over the years.