Legendary Store B&H is Now the Hottest Club in Town as New Yorkers Scramble to Get Eclipse Glasses
By Reuven Fenton and Aneeta Bhole
Published April 7, 2024, 10:05 p.m. ET
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 sunglasses.
“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.
“My line was snaking throughout the entire store, my first 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 the frenzy to watch the rare event mounted.
“When I was leaving going to get the 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.
“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 away.”
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.
Other retailers have also been pedaling the product at varying price points, but B&H proved to be the hottest ticket in town.
“I waited until the last minute to get glasses for the eclipse and I went around to a few different places around the city today that were supposed to be giving them out, but they were all out,” 24-year-old Bushwick resident Jason deCastro told The Post.
The 24-year-old saw that B&H had been selling them and made a beeline for the store — but upon arriving — realized the sacrifice he was about to make.
“It was the busiest I’d ever seen that store. To get in the line, you already had to have the glasses. They were passing 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 deCastro had to wait close to an hour for the glasses he explained it would be well worth it.
“I’m really hoping it’s not cloudy tomorrow. If I waited 51 minutes and I’m not even going to be able to see the eclipse tomorrow, it’s going to be sad,” he said.
“The looks on the faces 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 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 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 completely blocked by the moon’s shadow for up to four minutes.
