As mainland Europe embraces the Euro with open arms, Scilly may be the last place many economists would think of, an accolade with which Scilly can feel perfectly justified.
Even some shops on the mainland have begun to accept the currency as legal tender, despite some reluctance from certain retailers. Many have asked the question of whether or not any retailers in The Islands will deal in the Euro, to put it bluntly, the answer is no. Not even the one shop which belongs to a chain will accept the currency, that is the Co op. Islanders will probably be able to purchase the currency, which appears to be useless in Scilly, from the Post Office or banks on St. Marys.
This exemption may have wider consequences though, for our European neighbours visiting the Islands on one of the many cruises which stop over in the Islands during the Summer. There has been one example of a retailer accepting foreign currency recently though. When the Islands one cash point machine broke down briefly, a group of French tourists were left without any money. In an act of supreme charity, the Tolman Caf?, Old Town, accepted Francs for a day!
As a piece of undercover journalism from the Scilly News team, we purchased some Euros from the Post office in Truro and set about trying to spend them in Cornwall’s only City, an area not notorious for its inclusive stance on Europe. The post office offered a no-commission exchange rate so we purchased 10 Euros for ?6.46p.
Our first port of call was Marks and Spencer where we attempted to purchase a bottle of French mineral water and three bars of Swiss chocolate, how very Ironic we thought! As the young man attending the till was ringing through the items he was seemingly oblivious to the Chaos that was bound to ensue! “Ah!…” he exclaimed. As he scratched his head the queue was building impatiently behind me while my friends began to snigger in the corner.
In the end we had to walk upstairs and to the other end of the store where, with much pride at being the ‘first cashier to carry out a Euro transaction’, a nice Marks and Sparks lady wished us farewell with our chocolate and water now officially, and more to the point, legally transacted. We did consider faking a European accent but instead favoured putting on a straight face and braving he inevitable storm. Needless to say, our subsequent trip to the cinema was fruitless as they laughed our Euros away, and the pint of French beer did not take warmly to being purchased in this way either. The barmaid simply cast a forceful glance towards the 18stone bouncer at the door as we quickly produced a fiver!
The race is on to become the first retailer in Scilly to accept the Euro. If you think you know who it will be, please contact us with your ideas!