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

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

#531

Post by gnopgnip »

Improvotter wrote: post #336
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…

Why does that make the glasses so expensive though? The frames from my glasses were about 100 EUR and the glasses were a lot more expensive. If I ask my parents or other people, they are paying 1000 EUR or more for the glasses by themselves (not the frames). I'm about to get new glasses next month because my current glasses are 6 years old now, I'm looking forward to some new glasses.

Even the luxottica brands have some cheap options. They are expensive because there is a market for people to spend $200+ on eyewear.

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

#532

Post by ascorbic »

SZJX wrote: post #525
outworlder wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I... can't form a coherent response. How do you even know which prescription to get? Do you have astigmatism? How do you measure that? It's not a scam. It's just overpriced in the US, because they can't get their stuff together in the health department.

That doesn't make much sense because adult vision doesn't change much. It should be perfectly valid to use an old prescription unless you want to re-check your vision. I've never seen this law in Asia or Europe and people are living just fine.

I just had an eye test and both of my eyes had changed enough after two years to make a very noticable difference to my prescription.

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

#533

Post by Cthulhu_ »

KineticTroi wrote: post #474
mikekchar wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wanted to chime in here because while I don't have a wide head, I have a long distance between my ears and my nose (i.e., narrow but long from front to back). It literally took me 40 years to figure out that if the arms of the glasses are not long enough, the glasses will tilt down, because the curve of the arm will sit on your ears. This results in really poor vision (as you can imagine). It sounds stupid tha…

BTW - These acetate frame arms can usually be heated carefully with a torch, and bent to straighten them up. Thus making them much longer. Sometimes you can even rebend them farther back. Though straighter arms are somewhat more prone to fall from your face.

Don't your glasses shops make sure to adjust the arms to your size? Mine does, they have a special device that heats up the arms so they can bend it carefully, and pliers to adjust the nose thingies.

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

#534

Post by feanaro »

jolmg wrote: post #262
Aunche wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Needing a prescription for glasses is a bit absurd to begin with. The worst case of wearing the wrong prescription is that you'll get a headache. I suppose it could be a bit dangerous if some drivers were slightly disoriented, but I can't imagine glasses being more dangerous than something like Tylenol.

> The worst case of wearing the wrong prescription is that you'll get a headache. Doesn't using the wrong prescription worsen eyesight faster? At least, it's been my general experience that when a child is curious about people's glasses and is given the glasses so they can experience the effect, they only let them try it for a couple seconds and are explained that using them for too long can cause damage to their eye…

Yes, it's a myth in the sense that you would need to wear the glasses several orders of magnitude longer and/or consistently for there to be any negative effects. Some people seem to think that even looking through the glasses will unleash demons into the healthy eye.

Modern research does point in the direction of the eye remodelling itself based on what kind of input you give it on a longer scale, though. This includes the amount of light seen during the day and whether it is able to focus rays or not. There are indications these play a role in the development of myopia.

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

#535

Post by ghaff »

malikolivier wrote: post #503
bluGill wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hearing aids are sold to hunters at a much lower price (as noise protection and low noise enhancement). The same work goes into them, but they are not medical devices so they have to be affordable.

Comparing these two types of hearing aids is similar to comparing a magnifying glass with normal glasses. A magnifying glass might do the job good enough, and I know people who decided to not buy glasses but just use a magnifying glass to read.

Or, if your eyes are roughly equivalent in prescription need, you buy a $10 pair of reading glasses at any drug store.

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

#536

Post by leokennis »

rootusrootus wrote: post #94
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…

The original article too long for you to get through? ;-) The company that basically owns the entire eyewear industry top-to-bottom is Italian. Just merged with a French company. I know it's popular on HN to talk about how crappy the US is, but in this case you jumped to the wrong conclusion.

It might be an Italian/French company but that doesn’t mean they apply the same business tactics everywhere.

In the Netherlands, an eye measurement, a decent pair of glasses and a pair of sunglasses (both non reflective) will cost you ~ €250,- and that seems reasonable to me.

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

#537

Post by ggsp »

yabatopia wrote: post #527
brymastr wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other non-Luxottica options in the US. Warby Parker, Bailey Nelson, and Ollie Quinn to name a few. Almost everyone sells Essilor frames though but not quite everyone is owned by the eyewear conglomerate. At least with Bailey you can get some quality frames for a decent price.

Does anyone know the non-Luxottica options in Europe, where the market is much more fragmented across countries?

I know about Ace And Tate (NL), GlassesDirect (UK), and Quattrocento (IT) .

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

#538

Post by vkou »

cryptonector wrote: post #392
vkou wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Requiring that medical student careers be approximately a decade long is another protectionist requirement. No, that's just reflective of how damn difficult it is to distill the body of knowledge required to be a doctor into a brain. Just because you can learn enough Javascript in 24 hours to build an insecure one-page CRUD app with an animated duck, doesn't mean that you can do the same with the human body. It tak…

Medical training in the U.S. requires first a non-medical degree.

The non-medical bachelor's degree is not the expensive part of becoming a doctor.

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

#539

Post by jakubp »

ggsp wrote: post #537
yabatopia wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone know the non-Luxottica options in Europe, where the market is much more fragmented across countries?

I know about Ace And Tate (NL), GlassesDirect (UK), and Quattrocento (IT) .

Fielmann is a German brand available in several European countries, but I'm not sure if they make their own eyewear.

Still, I can't imagine paying 1000 USD for a pair of glasses. In Poland 100 EUR gives you a decent pair, 200 EUR is already a bit much.

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

#540

Post by jonplackett »

I’ve been getting glasses from selectspecs.com for years now. I just buy 3 pairs for about £15 each and then swap them out when I break them (which happens often due to clumbsiness). Quality is fine. Glasses are just made of plastic. No reason they should be expensive as far as I can tell.
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