Bern crowds scramble for solar eclipse sunglasses

Solar eclipse causes a huge rush for sunglasses in Bern Keystone-SDA

In the city of Bern the shortage of protective glasses in the run-up to the solar eclipse on Wednesday has resulted in a long queue. Several hundred people were waiting outside the specialist shop Foto Zumstein Video on Tuesday afternoon.

The queue, which was around 200 metres long, stretched all the way round the block, according to a reporter from the Swiss New Agency Keystone-SDA. A Swissinfo journalist also witnessed the queue.

At 1:45pm, around 300 people were hoping to buy a pair of special glasses. The waiting time was about 90 minutes. The 32°C temperature did not deter those waiting.

Marketing manager Roy Stahl, together with a colleague, handed out chocolate to keep the large crowd in the queue in good spirits. He said that a final delivery of solar eclipse glasses had arrived at 1pm. He did not know how long it would take for them all to be sold.

Stahl emphasised that sales would end once this delivery had been sold out. He declined to say how many pairs a single person was allowed to buy. The policy was based on common sense. In any case, they wanted to prevent anyone from buying large quantities for the purpose of reselling them at a profit.

Safety glasses in short supply

The previous evening, around 100 people had already been queuing outside the shop, and some had to be turned away. Apart from a few specialist shops, it was difficult to get hold of safety glasses so close to Wednesday’s event.

At Digitec Galaxus, for example, availability was, in the online retailer’s own words, “not ideal” – the cheaper models had already sold out days earlier. The major retailers Migros and Coop had not offered any special glasses for sale, they confirmed in response to an enquiry from Keystone-SDA.

On Wednesday, Switzerland will experience its biggest solar eclipse since 1999. Depending on the location, the moon will cover between 91% and 93% of the sun. The eclipse will reach its peak shortly before sunset. Certified solar eclipse glasses are essential for observing the event. Sunglasses are not suitable for this purpose.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.