Buck You

Oh, New York...once again you're so much better than everyone else. Always setting yourself apart from the rest - why are you not the capital of our country?

As the U.S. dollar continues to lose value against other currency, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise. No, that's not hurting the buck at all.

"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," said Robert Chu, who owns a liquor store. Chu was amazed that foreigners liked to get their drink on as much as Americans. "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."

"Now we have to get familiar with other currencies and the (British) pound and the Canadian dollars we take," he said. Great, I'm trying to get my bottle of T-Bird and the high school dropout at the register has to examine currency exchange rates for the Germans in front of me. What's next - printing government documents in foreign languages?

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 just recently. It is more impressive when you realize that foreign currency has become accepted ahead of many foreigners.