The solar eclipse may darken the skies today, but it is proving to also be a bright star for sales of Moonpies made by the Chattanooga Bakery Co.
The round marshmallow treat, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, has been the snack of choice for many to celebrate today's celestial event in which the moon will temporarily block out the sun across much of American, including more than 99.5 percent of the sun in Chattanooga where Moonpies are made.
Tory Johnson, marketing director for the Chattanooga Bakery Co., quipped that it was nice of Mother Nature to mark the centennial of the Moonpie with today's eclipse.
"Retail shelves are near empty, and we had to hit pause on our website we were so buried in orders," Johnston said today. "We're mighty thankful, and more than a little surprised at all this. We have shipped MoonPies coast to coast for eclipse viewing parties from Salem, Oregon and Charleston, South Carolina."
MoonPie's online store has done more business in the past couple of weeks than it did all of last year, thanks to solar eclipse products. Chattanooga's MoonPie General Store on Broad Street is selling T-shirts with the Moonpie logo heralding "I survived the total eclipse."
The Moonpie General Store and website have already sold out of the eclipse survival kits - two pairs of eclipse-viewing glasses and four mini-MoonPies - which were recently featured on NBC News.
But the company is still offering a year's supply of MoonPies to a lucky winner who posts a tweet or photo of having fun on eclipse day with the hashtag #MoonPieEclipse.
The Columbus Technical College in Georgia is streaming today's eclipse and serving free Moonpies to add to the fun.