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Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

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Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

#241

Post by ChoGGi »

Nition wrote: post #129
RajT88 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. I buy 5 pairs of glasses at a time (cheapest ones I can manage which look OK). 5 at a time is still cheaper than 1/3rd the price of low cost normal glasses. And each of those 5 pairs is half as durable. It is a similarly wild situation where eye exams at Walmart can be cheaper than at a regular eye doctor covered by my insurance.

I bought my lone pair of glasses in 2009 and I've replaced the lenses once since then. I wear them every day. Now I'm wondering what everyone else is doing.

For me I've got regular driving glasses, safety glasses, computer glasses (you don't want to use your full prescription for close distance), and sun glasses.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

#242

Post by dotancohen »

vitejose wrote: post #237
dotancohen wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dish detergent seems to get under coatings and ruin them, in my experience. Glass cleaner is fine, though.

Interesting. Are you referring to Windex or one of the optical-grade solutions? I used to use dish soap but I found that I can just run mine under warm water for thirty seconds or so and that gets them pretty clean.

Yes, windex is fine in my experience.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

#243

Post by SECProto »

readenough wrote: post #212
jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had very good luck ordering from Zenni and Coastal. It is perhaps a bit harder to find a frame style you like, but once you have a frame of reference for say width measurements it's not so bad. They're especially good for cheap prescription sun glasses. I bought a whole stack of them years ago I'm still working through. If I go to the river or where ever and something happens to them I'm out $25 instead of $250.…

coastal.com redirects to eyebuydirect.com. Is that the same one you are talking about?

Eyebuydirect is a Luxottica subsidiary. Coastal became Clearly became a Luxottica subsidiary. I think Zenni is independent for now (couldn't find any evidence to the contrary).

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

#244

Post by beaylott1986 »

This must be a US thing. In UK you pay £25 for an eye test (which employer is required to cover if you have to wear glasses at work) and then you can order online with prescription you get from test for £40 and usually there are 2 for 1 or 50% offers even on that. It is baffling that you would have no competition if this was costing $800 ... is there IP or regulations stopping this or something?

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

#245

Post by Tangurena2 »

banana_giraffe wrote: post #72
adzm wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the pupillary distance is not commonly included on optical prescriptions which creates a significant hurdle, even though it can be measured yourself or usually given when asked.

I've asked for my pupillary distance in the past and got a talking to about how evil online ordering is and how it'll ruin my eyes before they would give it to me. All BS, and when I asked if they'd fill a prescription for lenses for my VR unit instead of ordering them online, they stared at me like I had grown a third arm.

Mine gave me the number without question. Mind you, by this time, I had spent about 2 hours at the store trying on different frames and asking for frames that were on their website only to be told something like "we have those at the other branch, not this one".

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

#246

Post by MichaelZuo »

vel0city wrote: post #223
MichaelZuo wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presuming that they have multiple different lenses in stock you can compare them side by side visually? You can wet them, shine a flashlight, put them under the sun for transition lenses, etc... Not foolproof, but it would make it harder to substitute the lower end lenses, 3 coatings vs 2 coating would likely be noticeable. 8 coatings vs 7 coatings might not be. So for the mid range and above it probably doesn't make…

So we can't trust the store to give us the glasses we ordered, we need to test them. To get a control to test against, we're then going to...trust the store and have them provide the control? How do you know those glasses on the counter touting 8 layers actually has those 8 layers? It kind of sounds like all you can really do is see if the glasses have the features you requested. Do they transition? Does it seem like…

Well that’s why I mentioned in-store testing would likely only be useful for low end lenses.

For mid range to high end lenses it would probably be impossible to confirm the actual layer count without destructive testing.

Of course it would be reputation and gut-feel-perception based for most buyers in any case.

However, for the higher end stuff, gut-feel-perception probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Human eyes can’t perceive the strength of lamination between layers, for example.

So it would be entirely reputation based at the higher end.

Which probably explains why high end glasses are vastly more expensive then Warby Parker and other discount places…

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

#247

Post by timbit42 »

Spivak wrote: post #232
bluGill wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hint, when buy glasses ask about swim goggles - they will write down the PD distance (since they don't have swim goggles), and then you can keep that number. You still need to buy one final set of glasses, but you can get their cheap frames and be done.

This life hack really isn't necessary, you can just ask for your PD distance and they'll bring out a little machine that measures it. No optometrist has ever been weird about it, a few have even told me a few sites to get cheaper glasses.

My optometrist was weird about it, presumably because he also sells frames and lenses. I went to an optometrist who doesn't sell frames or lenses and she was happy to spend less than a minute to measure my PD. I won't be going back to the former.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

#248

Post by timbit42 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #191
femto wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Measuring Pupillary Distance (PD, or distance between your pupils) is easy! Here's how: 1) Stand in front of a vertical mirror, making sure you are square to the mirror. 2) Place a horizontal ruler on the surface of the mirror. 3) Close one eye and move your head until the reflection of the centre of your pupil lines up with zero on the ruler. 4) Keeping your head still, open your eye and close the other eye. 5) The…

Can't read the ruler, too blurry. ;-)

Wear your old glasses when measuring.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

#249

Post by calaei »

dwighttk wrote: post #202
petilon wrote: post #19

Glasses are expensive because there is no competition. One company - Luxottica - owns pretty much everything. You go to LensCrafters and prices seem super expensive, so you go to Pearle Vision and that's expensive too, so you go to Target Optical and prices are still high and then you think maybe glasses are expensive, since you went to multiple stores and they all have similar prices. What you don't realize is that…

I mean https://zennioptical.com https://www.eyebuydirect.com/ I’ve gotten my last 8+ pairs at one of those two (may have been a third but can’t remember) the most I paid was for some sunglasses where I wanted a few upgrades $80… the rest averaged $12

eyebuydirect.com is owned by Essilor, which is part of Luxottica. Despite that I still buy my glasses from them since its way cheaper than a retail store. https://www.eyebuydirect.com/terms-of-use "Thank you for visiting EyeBuyDirect.com! — an Essilor Group US Inc. website (the "Site")."

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

#250

Post by timbit42 »

dwighttk wrote: post #202
petilon wrote: post #19

Glasses are expensive because there is no competition. One company - Luxottica - owns pretty much everything. You go to LensCrafters and prices seem super expensive, so you go to Pearle Vision and that's expensive too, so you go to Target Optical and prices are still high and then you think maybe glasses are expensive, since you went to multiple stores and they all have similar prices. What you don't realize is that…

I mean https://zennioptical.com https://www.eyebuydirect.com/ I’ve gotten my last 8+ pairs at one of those two (may have been a third but can’t remember) the most I paid was for some sunglasses where I wanted a few upgrades $80… the rest averaged $12

https://www.goggles4u.com/
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