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City businesses accepting Euros as dollar value plummets

By Matthew Sweeney | Special to amNewYork

February 28, 2008

The electronic retail store "47th Digital" at 1552 Broadway between 46th and 47th Street has been known to accept foreign currency such as the Euro from its customers. With the US dollar at a significant low, tourists might be able cash in locally while using the Euro. (RJ Mickelson, Newsday / February 27, 2008)

As the euro continues to flex its muscle against the dollar, some local stores are bending to its increased power and accepting the currency for purchases.

An informal survey of stores from Times Square to Fifth Avenue yesterday turned up a few places that were willing to take euros, which hit a record value of $1.51 against the dollar Wednesday.

"While we have no concrete evidence that this is a trend, we have begun reaching out to our nearly 2,000 members to find out their position," said Kimberly Spell, senior vice president of communications for NYC & Company, the city's official tourism arm.

Wednesday, amNewYork found some businesses around tourist-thick parts of the city willing to accept euros, including at ubiquitous camera and electronics shops that cater to the unwary in Times Square and elsewhere. But workers at even those shops said that euro purchases so far are uncommon. At most, maybe five times a week.

At the pan-European-themed restaurant in the East Village named, appropriately, The E.U., euros is an acceptable currency.

"Technically we do accept euros. It's just that no one has taken us up on it," said co-manager, Rick Wells.

The day that someone does come in with a fistful of euros, the restaurant will recalculate the price of the check to the appropriate exchange rate and charge thusly, Wells said. Presumably the same exchange rate would be given to the waiter who collected a euro tip.

William Leroy, owner of Billy's Antiques, grew so frustrated with the terrible exchange rate on his regular trips to the Paris flea market where he finds much of his stock, that he started taking euros at his store at Houston Street and Bowery. Once the euro passed $1.40 to the dollar, the Parisian vendors wouldn't take his dollars, he said. Now he collects euros in New York to take with him to France.

"Would I have done this three years ago?" he said. "No way."

While more stores are taking euros to satisfy the growing number of E.U. customers, retail watchers warned not to expect euro-transactions to get far in New York.

Matthew Bauer, president of the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District said he's never even heard of anyone taking euros even with more European clientele visiting upscale shops.

"I don't think on Madison Avenue people are walking around with cash," Bauer laughed. "Given the price point that we have on Madison Avenue I would suspect that most of the customers are using credit cards."

So much retail depends on computerized transactions that taking a foreign currency would be nearly impossible, said Nancy Ploeger, president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.

"It's not the old days where you give me the money and stick it in a drawer," Ploeger said.