11–20 of 317 posts
Without even opening the article I can predict that it informs everyone of what a behemoth Luxoticca is. As a person with a nearsightedness measurement greater than -5.5, it's something I had to educate myself on. Costco optical is a decent option for retail sales.
My last pair of designer frames with lenses from LensCrafters: $350, similar pair from my optometrist: $750, similar pair (but not designer frames) from an online retailer: $50.
They're still making a profit off of it.
In industrial supply chain, if you have two suppliers who are each charging the same price and you know that one is making higher profit margins, go with the one with higher margins - they're more likely to be stable.
There are plenty of options online and offline for cheaper frames.
For the last couple of years I have transitioned to Parker Warby and Costco's Kirkland Brand for reading glasses. As a tip for Americans, when traveling to Europe make sure you go shopping for Frames. You will get them for 1/4 - 1/3 the cost of US prices and have a selection 10 times as large.
For the generics/non name brand, he only spends a few dollars a frame with the lens costing more.
And then marks them up to $200-300
A full pair of glasses (yes, frames and lenses) start at $6.95 total. Even with some upgrades for scratch resistance & to prevent glare I don't think I've spent more than $50 on a pair of glasses since I found Zenni.
There's also the added bonus of the expensive glasses/sunglasses paradox: the more money I spend on glasses & sunglasses the more prone I seem to breaking or misplacing them. Needless to say at $7/pair I've got quite the collection of Zenni frames going since I've yet to lose a set.
I was able to slash my eyeglasses expenditures in both the exams and the frames: eye exams: I used to pay the optometrist $153 ($117 refraction + $36 dilation). I later found out that Costco often has an optometrist on site in a tiny office and will charge just $59 (and add +$20 for dilation). That's less than half the cost of most other optometrists. frames: switched to Zenni online to avoid the LensCrafters/Pearle/…
They still came out to be cheaper than Luxottica, and for something that I use for years, it ended up being worth it.
What are some good online companies that are fighting this status quo?