Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Pound shops in airports

Shops selling cheap tat for people desperate to get rid of foreign coins
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At the end of a holiday, everyone usually has a small amount of foreign currency left that is either not worth changing, or is too small a denomination to change when arriving home.

It's not enough to buy Duty Free, or large bars of Toblerone (a chocolate that is exclusively bought in airports, I think you'll find), but you want to spend it.

The solution? A pound shop (or $2 shop) that sells lots of tat that you'd not normally buy, but seeing as you've got to spend the money anyway, you might as well.

It works in run-down shopping arcades across the world for people who have got no choice but to shop there, so why won't it work for those who know they need to fritter away cash?

mrballs, Aug 14 2004

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       Then shops would then have the overhead exchanging foreign currency. Open it up for non-profit donation and I'll bust out that croissant! (Picture it,people dropping off their "useless" foreign money into buckets for a good cause)
Around TUIT, Aug 14 2004
  

       The non-profit donation thing is already baked. I'm after the market of people who COULD give the money to charity, but are too self-centred to, and have got their eye on a particularly fetching bar of soap in the shape of a fish. Maybe if we give the shop's profits to charity?
mrballs, Aug 14 2004
  

       That would do, Croissants for you!
Around TUIT, Aug 14 2004
  

       [mrballs], isn't that the basic premise of every airport kitsch store in existence? I haven't been in a single airport (and I've been to very, very many) that didn't have cheap souvenir shot glasses and stupid caps with foam protrusions, tiny stuffed animals and hideously unfashionable T-shirts; all touting the splendour of these places that most consumers only ever see through the window of a departure lounge . . . [-]
contracts, Aug 15 2004
  

       One thing I've found while flying in Europe was that Virgin, at least, collected spare foreign change for a charity program they were sponsoring.   

       However, I had a pocket I didn't check, and am the proud owner of about two quid in british change. I'm tempted to see if the "authentic" british pub will sell me a pint for it!
adamosity, Aug 15 2004
  

       //"authentic" british pub will sell me a pint for it!// Its £2.32 in my local - I hope you have some more shrapnel!
gnomethang, Aug 15 2004
  

       Didn't a toll company in New York dump 29 tons of foreign coin a few years back, because it was uneconomical to sort and count?
Zanzibar, Aug 15 2004
  
      
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