Sold out: People line up as Butler store opens for unusual hours to sell last-minute solar eclipse glasses
Rain drizzled down on Carole Bartlebaugh Monday morning, April 8, as she waited in line to buy solar eclipse glasses from one of the last stores that still had them in stock just hours before the solar eclipse — Totalus in Butler.
In a Sunday morning Facebook post, the business announced its East Jefferson Street storefront would open outside regular business hours from 9 to 11 a.m. Monday for last minute glasses sales.
“We had no luck anywhere here,” Bartlebaugh said. “(Totalus) posted on Facebook saying they had a few hundred left.”
She recalled how she drove around Sunday in search of special lenses, but found that places like Walmart, GetGo, Lowe’s and many other stores, which previously had glasses available, were sold out of the in-demand product.
Bartlebaugh found herself standing in the line, which stretched far outside the store’s entrance. She was happy to have found the store, as she planned to watch the eclipse from her home in Butler later Monday.
Others like Nathan Melendez traveled from Pittsburgh for the chance at a pair of glasses. He was among a few students of Perry High School who drove up.
Melendez said a friend of his reserved glasses for their group of eclipse-watchers.
“This was just the only place giving them out,” he said. “(She) just heard about it on Facebook.”
By Sunday night, Totalus said it had 300 adult sizes and 200 child sizes left. They didn’t anticipate running out, but they did quickly run out of adult glasses.
The line outside the business formed a little before 9 a.m. Monday, and by around 10:20 a.m., Totalus made a Facebook post saying it had run out of adult glasses and only had some child sizes left.
“We had a stock of about 1,000 glasses at the start of yesterday leading us to think we wouldn’t run out. However, do to the mass amount of orders that flooded in overnight we aren’t sure how many more are left,” the post said. “This morning has been crazy.”
In Butler County, the eclipse was visible when the moon moved between the Earth and sun at 1,398 miles an hour from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
