Eclipse glasses line in Whitechapel, Londoner by Ali Reza.

Here and at our sister site, MyEclipseGlasses.com, we encourage everyone to buy eclipse glasses well before an eclipse. It doesn’t matter if you buy them from us, or from another reputable seller of ISO 12312-2 certified glasses. (But it’s best to avoid the cheap ones made in China.)

The picture above shows exactly what happens if you wait too long. There were multiple news reports in the U.K. focusing on the long line at the AM2PM convenience store in Whitechapel, London.  The Londoner, from which the top image came, ran it under the headline “London ran out of eclipse glasses. Then chaos began.”  Even the BBC had coverage.

Eclipse glasses line at Whitechapel, the Independent.

The image shown at left is the queue (line for those of us on this side of the Pond) outside the shop, from the Independent.  That article quotes the owner, Mr. Ali Raza, as saying that a shipment arrived from Spain at 2:30 AM the day before the eclipse, and was sold out by 9:30.  I am proud to say that was my son who flew in at the last minute in the middle of the night with more glasses.  And after that shipment ran out, Mr. Raza himself jumped on a plane, and brought back one last supply of glasses from Spain.

The video below is an interview with Mr. Reza by a Sun Express reporter. When he mentions a “guy from America” that was my son. (It’s a little unclear at the start, because he mentions China. But at the end, he makes clear that he didn’t want anything dodgy in his shop–he properly insisted on ISO certified glasses made in Spain.)

We didn’t make it to Spain for totality this time around.  But of course, after the work was done, he did view the eclipse from near a castle between Madrid and Valencia.  We will have photos soon.

The next eclipse is August 2, 2027.  Once again, buyers in Europe and North Africa will be scrambling for glasses.  If you want to have a long line in front of your store full of eager buyers, please contact us at eclipse-glasses@usa.net.