Weak Dollar = Strong Christmas Sales for Europeans
Returning to Iceland After Shopping Bender
at the Mall of America
MINNEAPOLIS -- Andrea Guðjónsdóttir arrived in Minnesota from Iceland last week with nothing but the clothes on her back. Oh, and two empty suitcases, which she promptly filled to near-bursting with clothes, toys and other gifts during a five-day shopping spree in the Twin Cities. "Everything's so cheap," said Guðjónsdóttir, 35, who lives in Akranes, a seaport city on Iceland's west coast. "You can pay $30 for Levi's here; at home, it'd be $200."
Guðjónsdóttir joins a growing number of shoppers across the world who are coming to the U.S. -- and Minnesota -- this holiday season to take advantage of good deals against the falling dollar. At a time when the U.S. economy is sagging, retailers say foreign tourists are providing a hedge against a Christmas season that's expected to be the slowest in five years.
2 Comments:
This kind of sounds like the stories I hear when people come back from the developing world: "You'd be amazed, you can get a whole three-course meal for, like, the equivalent of $2.00.
Good thing those over-taxed, over-regulated, social-democracy-loving northern Europeans have the wealth to come over here and buy our crap.
In the EU there is a law about 'brand-rights'. Don't know how to say it in english.
It means that you cannot go to the US, buy 1000 levi's and resell them for a small profit in the EU.
Because the Levi company owns the brand, they get to decide what sells for which price.
That's why levi's are cheap in the US and expensive in the EU, but also why japanese cars are still the same price, while the yen has dropped 40% to the euro.
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