WhatsApp ‘drops’, price hikes and queues: scramble for solar eclipse specs

A secretive WhatsApp group was pinging with notifications throughout Wednesday, letting its members know where in London the latest “drop” would take place.

The group’s focus, rather than being for an illicit substance, was for the much-coveted eclipse glasses, which have prompted a frantic rush on shops before the celestial event.

A near-total solar eclipse will be witnessed by tens of millions of people across western Europe on Wednesday for the first time in more than 25 years, but viewing the phenomenon without special glasses that filter visible, ultraviolet and infrared light can damage the retina.

Queues formed outside corner shops in London in the early hours as hopeful customers waited to get their hands on dwindling supplies of the glasses.

In the weeks leading up to the eclipse, the glasses were selling for about £5, but many corner shops in London that had managed to get hold of last-minute stock were charging double that, making a tidy profit.

Many entrepreneurial people have attempted to cash in. Outside Whitechapel tube station, there was a makeshift stall selling the glasses for £10 a pop. Another person posted on a Reddit thread that they would be outside Camden Town station with a fistful of glasses, at £20 a pair, until they had sold out.

The scramble to buy the glasses caused some tempers to boil over. One corner shop owner appealed to members of a pop-up WhatsApp group to behave themselves.

“We are hearing very bad things about customers and how they are treating the employees and the stores, threatening with bad reviews. Do not drive across the country and then blame the store if they don’t have them.”

Ali Raza, the owner of the AM2PM convenience store in Whitechapel, said he had had to turn people away all day. “On Sunday we had people coming from Surrey, Southend-on-Sea. Yesterday night a lady came from Southampton, and loads of people have come from Birmingham as well. We’re too busy.”

He said he had “already sold 6,000 pairs” on Wednesday. “At 2.30am we had a delivery from Spain and by 9.30am we sold out [of] everything,” he added.

The Royal Greenwich Observatory said it had sold more than 15,000 pairs of glasses in the past month and had now sold out of them.

Exmoor national park had also run out of the glasses. A spokesperson said: “We got to a point where we couldn’t get any more from our supplier in time and we don’t need them again, not until 2081.”

Branches of Sunglass Hut were forced to erect signs saying they did not sell eclipse glasses after being inundated with people searching for them.

Looking at the eclipse without eye protection can permanently damage your eyes. While it is not medically more dangerous to look at the solar eclipse than the sun under normal conditions, the risk is greater because it’s easier to look at the sun when it’s mostly obscured.

Panayiotis Maghsoudlou, a clinical lecturer in ophthalmology at the University of Bristol, said: “Under normal conditions the eye’s protective responses do the work: painful glare, reflex aversion within a second or so, blepharospasm, tearing, and a constricted pupil. Almost nobody can hold fixation on the full disc long enough to reach the photochemical damage threshold.

“During an eclipse, the sky darkens, your pupils widen, and the glare drops enough that staring feels comfortable, so people gaze at the exposed sliver of sun for minutes with a wide-open pupil and no warning discomfort. That’s why eye injuries cluster around eclipses even though the sun itself is unchanged.”

You also may not immediately realise the damage. “The retina does not contain pain receptors. Symptoms generally appear later, as blurred or reduced central vision, a blind spot, distortion of straight lines and altered colour perception,” he said.

After the 1999 eclipse, there were 70 reported cases of visual loss, half of which were reported within two days of the eclipse. Moorfields Eye hospital received 1,600 calls to its eclipse helpline and treated 220 people in its emergency department, while Birmingham Eye hospital received about 300 calls and treated 64 people at its special eclipse clinics.

There have also been concerns about counterfeit glasses, through which it could be dangerous to watch the eclipse.

Kyla Black, Boots Opticians’ director of optical practice, said: “It isn’t worth taking the risk with your eyesight. There are several safe ways to enjoy the eclipse such as wearing certified eclipse glasses that meet the international ISO 12312-2 safety standard.”

Reporting from The Guardian contributed to this story.