At least someone's shopping: Mexican shoppers go north

The recession may be hurting many retailers this holiday season, but the malls, restaurants and restaurants in Tucson, Ariz., are busy with Mexican shoppers pouring across the border to buy more products at lower prices that they couldn't' find at home.

Even with devaluation of the Mexican peso against the dollar, and having to spend a few hours in traffic to cross the border into the United States, the deals are worth it to the Mexican shoppers, according to a story in the New York Times.

"We can find everything we want and it's much cheaper," Aurelia Peralta told the Times. Peralta, 38, traveled to Tucson from Hermosillo, a city of 700,000 about 200 miles south of Tucson. She said that popular Christmas gifts cost twice as much in Hermosillo.

For Americans looking to turn the tables, deals have often been found in Mexico on medicine and drugs that don't need a prescription, along with dentistry, some surgeries. But be wary, bringing illegal drugs back, such as steroids, can lead to legal trouble, as it did for Jose Canseco. Last summer, when gas prices were high, Americans were driving across the border for cheaper gas.