- guardian.co.uk, Saturday August 21 1999 01.27 BST
The moon gradually moved in front of the sun, the temperature fell and the sky darkened in England last week - and an eerie silence swept across the country's shops, writes Julia Finch.
Waitrose has become the first retailer officially to blame the eclipse for a sales downturn.
The supermarket chain, concentrated in the south of England, said the eclipse - plus bad weather and the holiday season - conspired to produce a downturn in food shopping last week.
"The morning of the eclipse led to branches being particularly quiet," said director Tony Solomons. "The overall effect was a small drop in trade, year on year."
But it seems there was only a partial downturn. Rival Safeway reckoned the solar spectacular produced bumper business, although it closed 12 stores nearest to the path of the eclipse for an hour so staff and shoppers could gaze sunwards. "We did very good business down there last week," said a spokesman.
The London chamber of commerce had calculated the eclipse would cost British business up to £500m in lost sales and production.
