Stocks can't keep up with euro demand

ROME -- One week later, the photo shop on Paris's swank Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore had a sign in its window begging customers to use checks and credit cards because it had run out of euros.

So eager were Parisians to get their hands on the new currency that the Photo Service became a de facto currency exchange and couldn't keep enough of the euro in stock.

"We try every morning to go to the banks ourselves to get more change but there is always a wait," said branch manager Victor Madelaine. "I simply don't have the time."

Indeed, the biggest problem one week after the euro's historic New Year's debut -- glitches and bank lines aside -- was that there weren't enough of them to go around.

European Union officials acknowledged the problems but declared the rollout a success. They announced Tuesday that almost three-quarters of all cash transactions in the 12 countries were being conducted using euros -- even though old currencies will be valid in many countries for weeks.

Retailers and banks were reporting that their businesses were returning to normal, even with post-Christmas sales starting in many countries, the EU's executive Commission reported.

There still were snafus, of course.

Italian bank workers upset that they had been overworked during the chaotic first days of the changeover staged another strike Monday, snarling the country's already lagging conversion process. At Vienna's Criminal Law Court, a prosecutor was seen kicking the vending machine because it didn't accept five-cent coins required for a cup of tea.