'Euros Accepted' Signs Appear in Manhattan Shops

ART · Post by **ART** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:58 am

Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008

NEW YORK -- 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."

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video: http://video.wnbc.com/player/?id=215416

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tabbs · Post by **tabbs** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:23 am

Yes, I read about that in a New York Times blog a while ago. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/ ... ther-euro/ With the favorable exchange rate (from a € point of view), traveling to the US has become much less expensive for us: In terms of airline tickets (to some extent) but especially with regard to products and services from accomodation to food, clothing, etc.

On the other hand, when I travel to the US, cash is pretty much the last thing I worry about. I like having a few dollars with me, for a taxi or shuttle bus, tips and small purchases. But for pretty much everything above $20 or so, plastic is fine. So I would probably not even think of asking whether a store accepts my euro cash.

Christian

ART · Post by **ART** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:00 am

Frankly I HATE plastic

bhoeyb · Post by **bhoeyb** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:04 am

If you pay in Euro, would you get Euro back as change?

helloggs · Post by **helloggs** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:39 am

I don't think so. (Shops and fast food chains that accept Dollar in Europe give change only in Euro as well, at least as far as I experienced.) The shops would have to maintain a double cash register - unlikely that European tourists will ever be so important to them to do that. And don't forget, it's just a few shops in New York so far, and New York is not the USA.

Too early to plan extended dot hunting overseas...

Quizmaster · Post by **Quizmaster** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:58 am

Too early for dot hunting indeed.

And if you go to the US there is always Whereisgeorge.

The exact same message spawned a nice thread on their forums. Notice how I already got offered a free Eurobilltracking stamp and that they try me to get to attend a WG meeting even though I haven't entered a single dollar bill.

It's a very nice and active community with lots of nice people.

helloggs · Post by **helloggs** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:17 pm

Nice thread indeed, even including a .com/.eu discussion.

Looks like MzMoney caused the "uproar".

I wonder BTW if WG actually makes a profit??

And our 3 days EBTMs are certainly nothing compared to their 7-days-cruise

Quizmaster · Post by **Quizmaster** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:44 pm

helloggs wrote:Looks like MzMoney caused the "uproar".

Haven't seen him in this thread, but since he was such a big EBT user I wouldn't be surprised if he is Georging indeed.

I wonder BTW if WG actually makes a profit??

Well, there are Google ads (Sometimes three ads at one page for EBT!

Don't think those really help us?) and banner ads and a 7$/month "Friends of" programme so I guess Hank (the founder and administrator of WG) at least gets some compensation for his brilliant idea.

And our 3 days EBTMs are certainly nothing compared to their 7-days-cruise

Indeed... I guess the most active of those guys are even more crazy than we are.

tabbs · Post by **tabbs** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:41 pm

Quizmaster wrote:The exact same message spawned a nice thread on their forums.

Kind of odd that somebody posts EBT's 26-Dec-2007 newsletter on 7-Feb-2008, and even says he does so "to be informative". And it's good to know that you were there to post some less outdated info ...

The first message in that WG thread points to this article http://news.aol.com/business/story/_a/s ... 01#cmntbgn Pretty much the same story about that one, oops, those two stores in NYC ... but more than 500 comments. Five hundred! After reading a dozen or so of those This-Is-America rants, I went elsewhere though.

Errm, when do we have our EBT cruise, and where do I sign up?

Christian