A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

Europeans seem to wear glasses at a much higher rate than Americans. Is there is structural reason for the preference of glasses over contacts?

Orrr among people who wear vision correction, the US population has a higher median income that can afford contact lenses.

Without condemning anyone, the US has a very stratified class system. Those lower on the socio-economic ladder may not invest in vision care, which is a more complicated and expensive proposition in the US than it is in Europe. Among those that do, the US population probably has more disposable income than their European counterparts.

I love Europe, but saying that Americans hate nerds and Europeans are intellectual is just lazy. Many European policies, especially in terms of monetary policy and immigration policy, are not what I would call thoughtful or logical.

if you’re in to avoiding paying hyper-inflated costs to support entrenched and anticompetitive markets, like what eyeglsses have been for years, I higly recommend Zenni Optical. They have highly customizable options and are great glasses, especially for the price.

http://www.zennioptical.com

Edit: spelling

The reason glasses cost so much is because one company owns: (1) nearly all brand name frames including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Prada eyewear, Armani eyewear and so on, (2) nearly all retail stores such as LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical and Target Optical and (3) EyeMed, one of the largest vision insurance companies.

Luxottica retail brands: http://www.luxottica.com/en/retail-brands

Luxottica eyewear brands: http://www.luxottica.com/en/eyewear-brands

Luxottica vision insurance: http://www.luxottica.com/en/node/6336

See 60 Minutes story on Luxottica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDdq2rIqAlM

They were expensive before. 1-2000% markup on frames, etc. was pretty common in the 90s.

Edit: Ok, here we go downvoter. From memory: I could get a Perry Ellis frame out of the Frames catalog for about $10. Sola would sell me bifocal CR-39 lenses for ~$3.50/pair. A bottle of dye to tint lenses was about $4.00 and would last a week. A bottle of UV solution was $12 and it too would last a week. We'd sell the Frames for $150, the lenses for $125 and $10 a pop for tint and UV. This was early 90's before Luxottica bought everyone. I know I was in the business and, well, stayed in the business even after they bought the company I worked for. I'm not defending Luxottica. I don't like them, but it paid for my education and I have a pension coming in 10 years or so. Anyway, it was expensive _before_ them. My point stands. The one hour shops all had more to do with the prices going up than Luxottica did at that time.