> That industry used to make its money turning around and selling you glasses from the same office but that whole industry has been turned upside down by online retailers like Warby Parker and such
This is not really the case. Online, warby Parker, etc. have built scale but the traditional retail still makes a significant portion of their profits here. And it’s a healthy business by most standards. The staff and employed OD are typically compensated heavily through variable compensation. The primary industry metric is “capture rate”, the percentage of people that buy eye wear after the exam. If I recall correctly it’s about 65-70%. From an incentive perspective, the doctors and staff are salespeople through and through.
Like all segments of healthcare, it has really started to consolidate. The independents/regional brands operating now will likely sell to PE roll up play when the foundering doctor retires. PE will exit to conglomerates. Most of these are boomer’s and this form of consolidation is well under way. The already high margins can easily be improved by centralizing back office, etc.
The vertical integration in the industry is insane. Luxottica for example leads retail, frame manufacturing, lens fabrication (laboratory), and owns the #2 insurance provider (of 2 main players). They have such power they can and do “force” independent retailers to use their POS software.
Warby Parker has some hipness and definitely grew quickly. But, they hardly put a dent in the market. There may be some evidence that they expanded it, as happens with fashion. They would be more akin to Blue Nile in the jewelry space. Independent jewelers still dominate that market.