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Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

latimes.com

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Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#131

Post by linkmotif »

sftwds wrote: post #75
jawns wrote: post #15

Reminder, if you're in the US, the FTC says your eye doctor must give you your prescription after your exam. If a doctor refuses to do so, they can face legal action and penalties. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/05/buying-prescriptio... That said, I don't think the FTC stipulates what information must appear on the prescription. Many docs leave off your PD (pupillary distance), which is a necessary measuremen…

It doesn't hurt to ask! The last time I got my eyes examined was at some cheap lenscrafters-type store which had a promotion for 2 pairs of glasses and an eye exam for ~$60. The PD wasn't on the prescription, but the doctor made the measurement after I asked about it. There was a very limited selection of glasses that were available for the 2-for-$60 promotion, and they really tried to upsell me to more expensive fra…

LensCrafters is very expensive.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#133

Post by wuliwong »

flavor8 wrote: post #5

Zenni is very good. There is a slight difference in quality between them and the Armani Exchange glasses I got from an optician, but it's not significant. I got a basic pair of black framed rectangular nerd specs for $8 last week, and I'd happily wear them out. Measure the frame of a pair of glasses that looks good on your face and then try to find glasses with those measurements on Zenni.

I've been wearing glasses for over 25 years, the last 5 or so years I've been buying them from Zenni and it has been great. The best pair of glasses I've ever owned were about $25 from Zenni. I used to wear contacts a lot more until I got that one pair from Zenni. Now I wear contacts a few times a month.

I had to get a new prescription, so I went to a Walmart. After, they said that they could replace the lenses in my Zenni frames. It was going to cost me $180-240 just for the lenses!

I have never researched the economics of all this but there is an option for cheap glasses in the US that anyone with access to the internet can use. I wonder why people are still paying so much?

The conclusion from the article:

>Why do glasses cost so damn much?

>Because this industry has been getting away with fleecing people for decades.

That's all well and good but the fact that there ARE cheap options out there still begs the question, why aren't people using them?

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#134

Post by Diederich »

Epskampie wrote: post #88
Void_ wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this technique a real thing? Can we get an expert's opinion?

I'm not an expert, but I researched it a bit online since I found a charlatan who was promising people they could get rid of glasses completely. Expert opinion is that this is not possible, myopia is a physical condition that cannot be reversed easily. It is possible to get used slightly weaker lenses, but this is mostly your brain learning to adjust to the slight fuzziness. This seems in line with what tianmingwu ex…

> cannot be reversed easily

Do you mean via some kind of therapy or intervention, or in general?

I had pretty severe myopia 30 years ago, bad enough that I needed glasses in order to legally drive. But it steadily has gotten better, without any treatment. I stopped needing glasses to drive about 15 years ago, and now I have nearly perfect vision.

EDIT: I searched around a bit and indeed it seems that the consensus is that myopia never natural improves with age. But...whatever was causing my poor distance eyesight in the 1980s slowly got better. DMV records (granted, not high precision data) demonstrate it. So I don't know what to say.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#135

Post by wuliwong »

zrobotics wrote: post #78
themodelplumber wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had good luck with Zenni, but I know others who have not. For example, a friend of mine unknowingly picked a coating that seemed to make his lenses appear slightly yellow. It was borderline visible so he kept the glasses but later regretted it. Another friend used his cotton T-shirts to wipe his lenses free of dust, and quickly filled them with scratches. I personally EDC lens cleaning cloths now because I nea…

To be fair, I've had 'scratch proof' lenses from an optician that I have ruined in 2 months doing exactly that. And the addon coatings upsell is something many retail opticians do as well, unfortunately. Although that doesn't excuse the practice, it still feels shady to me.

I wore glasses for many years before I was shown Zenni and I've never noticed a lack in quality.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#136

Post by reaperducer »

rsynnott wrote: post #59
blackbrokkoli wrote: post #40

Title correction: Why are glasses so expensive in the US? The American eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry. Please stop using the US as the "that's how it is"-standard. In Germany, you pay a very reasonable (from my layman perspective) price for the lenses, maybe about 40$ plus another 30$ if you want to have non-reflective glasses or product from big name producers and stuff like that. Like every fashion pr…

Yeah, it's pretty weird. Test and basic glasses are free or near-free for most people in Ireland (if you've got a job it's covered under PRSI, if you don't it'll be covered by the medical card). If you're covered by neither (ie fully private), ~60 euro. I'm not sure what's stopping US vendors from just importing glasses from Europe...

I'm not sure what's stopping US vendors from just importing glasses from Europe...

They do. Mine are from Germany, but still cost $700, large part because of my prescription.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#137

Post by jdblair »

jawns wrote: post #15

Reminder, if you're in the US, the FTC says your eye doctor must give you your prescription after your exam. If a doctor refuses to do so, they can face legal action and penalties. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/05/buying-prescriptio... That said, I don't think the FTC stipulates what information must appear on the prescription. Many docs leave off your PD (pupillary distance), which is a necessary measuremen…

My doctor did leave the PD off the prescription, but I just called the office and asked for it. To their credit, they looked it up for me in their records.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#138

Post by wuliwong »

interlocutor wrote: post #107

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. See this eye-opening 60 Minutes story on Luxottica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDdq2rIqAlM…

And Walmart is still very expensive. I commented elsewhere this but they wanted $180-240 just to replace lenses in already existing frames.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#140

Post by socalnate1 »

ZhuanXia wrote: post #8
amvalo wrote: post #3

I've been meaning to bypass this racket for a while. Can anyone recommend a good chinese/indian seller for eyeglasses?

39dollarglasses.com is what I use.

Same; I have several pairs from them and they have always been fine.
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