Metro

B&H dubbed ‘hottest club in town’ as New Yorkers scramble to get eclipse glasses

Move over Studio 54! 

B&H has officially been dubbed the “hottest club in town” after crowds of New Yorkers rushed to the electronics and camera store to nab a pair of eclipse sunglassesꦬ.

“It was❀ quite a show there. I think I was in the line for at least half an hour and I had bought [a pair] online,” Noah Hurwitz, who traveled an hour from Ridgewood in Queens, told The Post.

New Yorkers eager to obtain special sunglasses for the eclipse crowded B&H on Sunday. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST

“My line was snaking throug𓄧hout the entire store, my fir🀅st reaction was to tweet that B&H was the hottest club in town.”

Viewers of a solar eclipse risk long-lasting damage to their eyes after only seconds of staring at the sun, even during a partial eclipse. So it’s no surprise hundreds had packed into the Garment District store.

“People seemed a little shocked. They had a guy with a big light-up wand directing the line. I was bumped into a couple of times. There was definitely some jostling as people pushed through the line, people who hadn’t quite gotten their bearings yet,” Hurwitz said.

Many companies had been helping New Yorkers by giving out free eclipse glasses but those options quickly faded as t♐he frenzy to watch the rare event mounted.

One person dubbed the famous photo and video outlet the “hottest club in town.” JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST

“Wh♋en I was leaving going to get t🥀he train home, LIRR workers were giving out glasses in Penn Station too, and that was the most crowded I’ve ever seen Penn Station, ever,” Liam Collins, who was at B&H to get photo gear for the eclipse, told The Post. 

“People were getting into fights there. A🌺 friend of ꧂mine who works there told me a couple people started assaulting each other to get those glasses.

Everything to know about the 2024 solar eclipse

  • The solar eclipse will take place Monday, April 8, blocking the sun for over 180 million people in its path.
  • The eclipse will expand from Mexico’s Pacific Coast across North America, hitting 15 US states and pulling itself all the way to the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
  • New Yorkers will experience the solar eclipse just after 2 p.m. Monday.
  • A huge explosion on the sun, known as a coronal mass ejection, is anticipated, according to experts. This happens when massive particles from the sun are hurled out into space, explains Ryan French of the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado.
  • To avoid serious injury to the eyes, it is necessary to view the event through proper eyewear like eclipse glasses, or a handheld solar viewer, during the partial eclipse phase before and after totality.
  • The next total solar eclipse will take place on Aug. 12, 2026, and totality will be visible to those in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and a small slice of Portugal. 

“So I wouldn’t be surprised if people in the train station said, ‘This is too chaotic here. Let’s🌊 just go to B&H two blocks awaꦺy.”

B&H was selling single pairs of the paper viewers for $1.29 and eclipse sunglasses for $39.95. The retailer also had options for packs that ranged from 4 to 20 pairs. 🥂;

A couple is seen observing the annular solar eclipse with special filter glasses for the sun at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Future Publishing via Getty Images

Other retailers have also been pedaling the product at va⛦rying price points, but B&H proved to be the hott꧙est ticket in town.

“I waited until the last minute to get glasses for the eclipse and I went around to a few different places aroꦛund the city today that were supposed﷽ to be giving them out, but they were all out,” Bushwick resident Jason deCastro told The Post.

The 24-year-old saw that B&H had been selling them and made a b-line for the store — but upon a🌠rriving — realized the sacrifice he was about to make.&nbs🐟p;

“It was the busiest I’d ever seen that store. To get in the line, you already had to have the glasses. They were pas🌳sing 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 snaked﷽ around the whole store. I waited in line for 51 minutes to buy the glasses.”

Although deC🤡astro had to wait close to an hour for the glass꧒es he explained it would be well worth it.

A mother watches the solar eclipse with her two teenage children in 2017 in Massachusetts. Merrily Cassidy/USA TODAY ไNETWORK / USA TODꦆAY NETWORK

“I’m really hoping it’s not cloudy tomorrow. If I waited 51 minutes and I’m no🦩t even going to be able to see the eclipse tomorrow, it’s going to be sad,” he said.

“The looks on the fa💧ces of people walking in 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 a few decades at least. So people seemed to 🔯feel it was worth it.”

The Great North American Solar Eclipse — the last total eclipse to hit the US for the next 20 years — occurs Monday, April 8 and will be v༒isible in New York between 3:15 and 3:30 p.m. The Big Apple is expected to see 90% of the eclipse.

Millions of Americans are hitting the road for Monday’s total solar eclipse, which is expected to cause a total traffic nightmare on at least 30 interstate highways in the path of the totality, where the sun will be completelyꦛ blocked by the moon’s shadow for up to four minutes.