New York Merchants Embrace Euro

Robin Shulman
Washington Post
Monday, February 25, 2008

NEW YORK -- "Euros Only" reads a handmade sign in Billy's Antiques & Props on East Houston Street in Manhattan. But that's really just an attention grabber. Actually, owner Billy Leroy explains, the store will accept Canadian dollars and British pounds, and U.S. dollars, too.

Leroy is one of a small but growing group of New York merchants in tourist-favored neighborhoods such as SoHo, the East Village and Times Square who have begun to accept the euro and other foreign currencies.

With the dollar near its lowest rate ever against the euro and the numbers of international tourists in New York at all-time highs, some store owners figure accepting the euro offers a convenience to customers and sometimes generates a stockpile of a strong currency for themselves.

Leroy began accepting euros after a buying trip to a Paris flea market in November, when the exchange rate meant he couldn't afford to purchase his usual volume of dressers, mirrors and wax figurines. This is his way to raise euros back home.

"European customers are here, buying apartments, and when they're buying apartments, they're here buying furniture for the apartments," said Leroy, in his shop, smoking a cigar. "This weekend, 50 percent of my customers were European."

The precipitous fall of the dollar -- currently one euro is worth nearly $1.50 -- has already changed the city.

Last year, the weak currency helped draw 8.5 million foreign visitors to New York, more than ever before, said George Fertitta, chief executive of NYC & Co., the city's tourism operation, and what they have been buying is as varied as lingerie and condominiums. Tourists generated $28 billion in spending last year and supported more than 350,000 jobs, and Europeans represent the largest group of foreign visitors, he said.

The plummeting dollar and rising euro have even entered popular culture. Rapper Jay-Z has a video in which he cruises New York streets flashing wads of euros.

"I need euros," said Garba Bar¿, a street vendor who sells cellphone covers and iPod cases from a table on Broadway in SoHo. He explained that he is from Niger, which he visits frequently and where the euro is commonly used.

Full article here.