B&H has been called “the hottest club in town” where New Yorkers flock to get their hands on eclipse glasses

US News

by Ruffin Fenton And Anita Bholi

Move over Studio 54!

B&H was officially dubbed “the hottest club in town” after crowds of New Yorkers rushed to the electronics and camera store to grab a pair of eclipse sunglasses.

It was a great show there. I think I was in line for at least half an hour and I bought [a pair] Online, Noah Horowitz, who traveled an hour from Ridgewood in Queens, told The Post.

“My line was swinging throughout the entire store, and my first reaction was to tweet that B&H is the hottest club in town.”

Solar eclipse viewers risk long-term damage to their eyes after just seconds of staring at the sun, even during a partial eclipse. So it's no surprise that hundreds gathered at the Garment District store.

“People seemed a little shocked. They had a guy with a big light stick directing the line. It crashed a few times. There was definitely some jostling as people were pushing through the line, people who didn't get their bearings yet,” Horwitz said.

Many companies were helping New Yorkers by handing out free eclipse glasses, but those options quickly faded as the craze for viewing the rare event escalated.

“When I was leaving to take the train home, LIRR workers were handing out glasses at Penn Station as well, and it was the busiest I've ever seen Penn Station,” Liam Collins, who was at B&H to take the photo, told the newspaper of the eclipse equipment.

“People were fighting there. One of my friends who works there told me that some people started assaulting each other to get those glasses.

“So I wouldn't be surprised if people at the train station said, ‘It's so chaotic here.’ Let's go to the B&H just two blocks away.

B&H was selling single pairs of paper viewers for $1.29 and solar eclipse glasses for $39.95. The retailer also had options for bundles ranging from 4 to 20 pairs.

Other retailers also sold the product at varying prices, but B&H proved to be the hottest ticket in town.

“I waited until the last minute to get eclipse glasses, and I went to a few different places around town today that were supposed to hand them out, but they were all out,” Bushwick resident Jason De Castro told The Post.

The 24-year-old saw that B&H was selling and created a B-line for the store – but upon arriving – he realized the sacrifice he was about to make.

“It was the busiest store I've ever seen. To get in line, you actually had to get the glasses. They were handing them out right when you walked into the store,” he said.

“There was a big box and there was an employee handing them out, and then the line stretched around the entire store. I waited in line for 51 minutes to buy glasses.

Although DeCastro had to wait about an hour to get the glasses, he said it was worth it.

“I really hope it's not cloudy tomorrow. If I wait 51 minutes and I don't even get to see the eclipse tomorrow, it's going to be sad,” he said.

“The looks on the faces of people walking into the store and seeing the crowd were looks of exasperation, like, ‘How long is this going to take?’ But this is the last eclipse that will pass near the area for at least a few decades. So people seem to feel like it’s worth it.”

The Great North American Solar Eclipse — the last total eclipse to hit the United States in the next 20 years — will occur on Monday, April 8 and will be visible in New York between 3:15 and 3:30 p.m. The Big Apple is expected to witness 90 degrees of eclipse.

Millions of Americans will take to the road to view Monday's total solar eclipse, which is expected to cause a total traffic nightmare on at least 30 interstate highways in the path of totality, as the sun will be completely obscured by the moon's shadow for up to four minutes.