Smart Business?

A noticed a news story today that was kind of funny to me. Not funny-ha-ha, but funny-that's-kind-of-a-good-idea funny.

Shops in New York City are now accepting euros when people buy things. I guess this is good for tourists and for shop keepers who would keep the euros because of the current weak US dollar and profit from that transaction. Hum...from a business point of view, this is a good idea.

On the flip-side, how does it impact the US economy to accept foreign currency? I can't be helping it...I'm pretty sure. (Honestly, economics is not an area I know a ton about...but I know the basis.) A lot of shops in states that border Canada accept Canadian currency and some places accept pesos, too. I heard a story about a pizza place that was accepting pesos and some people were mad about it and the owner was accused of being unpatriotic.

A lot of countries have shops that accept foreign currency. In Costa Rica, there are many (souvenir) shops that have prices posted where the buyer can pay in colones (CR) or dollars (US). The price in dollars a lot of times is not equal to the price in colones (duh....gotta make an extra buck somewhere). Has this hurt the Costa Rican economy or helped? I've never really thought about it enough to know.

So if I'm working in a store in the US that accepts euros, can I ask my boss to pay me in euros? I'd want to make a buck too?