Glenn Branney didn't go to the US last week for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, the Empire State Building or Central Park.
The 31-year-old tourist from Northern Ireland came to shop.
First, the Apple store, where he bought an iPod Touch and iPod Nano. Then Macy's, where he snatched up a bundle of coats, belts and wallets.
Branney was just one of many Europeans who descended on New York at the weekend to partake in the post-Thanksgiving shopping scrum and take advantage of a very weak dollar.
Their economic presence was being felt all over the city as the powerful British pound surged to more than US$2 and the dollar hit a new low against the mighty euro -- which was trading at a record US$1.4966 on Friday.
Ed Schmults, CEO of toy retailer FAO Schwarz, estimated that foreigners will make up about one third of customers at the flagship Fifth Avenue store this holiday season, compared to about 25 percent last year.
The retailer started selling duffel bags for US$20 last week at the Manhattan location to help tourists carry their purchases.
"They needed something for the loot," he said.
Like Branney, Alex Watson, 17, and Amy Thompson, 18, timed their visit from Liverpool, England to coincide with deep discounts offered on the day after Thanksgiving.
The two young women were also in a buying frenzy, loaded down with several expensive purses and beauty products as they surveyed Macy's tempting shelves.
"I love it," Thompson said. "It's amazing," Alex concurred.
Over on Fifth Avenue at the Circuit City, Ashlee Clifford, 26, of Northern Ireland clutched a Nintendo game system and a fraying list of items -- requests from friends after Clifford told them she'd be in the US for Black Friday.
"Everything is half price for us," Clifford said, referring to the buying power of her own currency. "It's absolutely madness."
Back at Macy's, Branney was showing no signs of fatigue, even after his visit to the Apple store. He had spent Thanksgiving resting so he'd be at full shopping strength, getting up at 4am to hit the stores.
Branney said he intended to spend about US$2,000.
"Maybe more," he said. "Who knows?"
Canadians have always been regulars at the sprawling Walden Galleria, a 10-minute drive from the border in upstate New York, but they've been an all-out shopping force since the "loonie" hit parity with the US dollar in September.
On Friday, with the Canadian dollar at US$1.01, there appeared to be equal numbers of cars with Canadian and New York plates stalking departing shoppers for their parking spaces.
One of three signs on a rack of girls' tops instructed shoppers to take an extra 20 percent off. The others knocked 40 percent off the original price and 15 percent off for using a Macy's card.
"Is that 75 percent off?" Gina Vieira asked. "Well then I'll just take the rack!"
She didn't, of course, but the Canadian and her 10-year-old daughter were in the mall -- heck, they were in the country -- for one reason on this Black Friday.
"We'll shop 'til we drop and probably have a nap in the car before our two-hour drive home," said Vieira, from Toronto.
Both said variety not seen at home was as appealing as the low prices.
"It's incredibly overwhelming. You just want everything and before you know it, you've run out of money and now you're on the credit card and then your friends' credit cards," Vieira laughed.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media
RSS