Businesses in Cameron are preparing for the solar eclipse

MILAM COUNTY, Texas (KBTX) – The city of Cameron is in the path of totality for the total solar eclipse and local businesses are preparing ahead of time.

The Cameron Chamber of Commerce is expecting thousands of people to flood the city on Monday to watch the eclipse.

The Chamber’s Executive Director, Melanie Reed, says she’s working to inform businesses, residents, and travelers on what to expect.

“We have posted and sent out information to our businesses for them to prepare by possibly purchasing a little extra food supplies, clothing, whatever they need for this week as well as the following week because we don’t know what the supply chain is going to look like once the influx of people is coming into our city, our county, and central eclipse with the eclipse,” said Reed.

Reed says the city of Cameron has already started to get busy from the eclipse.

“I think we will definitely see an influx of revenue. Well starting Thursday I feel like when I went to lunch and the traffic had already started through here, it has, it has increased,” said Reed.

Co-owner of The Bling Box Boutique, Courtney Renaud, said they ordered solar eclipse glasses about 3 weeks ago.

The Bling Box sells Solar Eclipse glasses for their costumers.

Renaud says she started receiving calls from locals and out-of-towners asking if they would be open leading up to the eclipse and the day of.

She says they’ll be open and even placed an extra order of clothes and items to restock her store in preparation for the influx of people visiting on Monday.

“We’re just making sure we have extra inventory for the customers coming in because anytime you have an influx of people, obviously you want to have more inventory than normal, so we’re definitely preparing for that. We have a bunch of new things coming in so we’re excited to share those things with people,” said Renaud.

Renaud said they’re expecting Cameron to be busy on Monday and that other local stores around town are preparing as well.

Farmers to Market, a local coffee shop in Cameron, decided to stay open on Monday when they’re usually closed. Co-owner Brenda Van De Walle says they even created an eclipse specialty drink.

Famers to Market specialty eclipse drink

“We came up with a Moon Pie Brulee. So we took our old fashioned moon pie and we combined it, so an eclipse with our caramelized sugar, which looks like sunshine for those golden tones, and just came up with a fun drink just to mark the occasion,” said Van De Walle.

It seems everyone is excited for the phenomenon to hit the sky.

“Just the excitement of everyone wanting to be in that 100% totality of where it’s happening and just to say that you saw it and were a part of it,” said Van De Walle.

The Cameron Chamber of Commerce has fielded hundreds of calls from people asking about the eclipse. They told KBTX they are expecting roughly 30,000 people to travel through Cameron this weekend and on Monday because of the eclipse.

On Monday, the public can watch the eclipse on Cameron’s city square or at public parks.