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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

#541

Post by needle0 »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #116
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…

They're very reasonable in Japan too. If you visit Japan, bring your eyeglass prescription. There are lots of stores in Tokyo that grind their own glass that are not owned by Luxottica. This is how I got the best (and cheapest) pair of glasses I've ever owned.

Was about to post this. Budget brand eyewear stores like JINS and Zoff are everywhere, and they provide glasses at around $50-100, eye exam included. I've bought several glasses from JINS over the past decade or so and had no problems with any of them.

I wonder if the San Francisco JINS store is priced the same, or they try to make themselves look like a premium brand like how Uniqlo does?

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

#542

Post by ginko »

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 got Mykita frames, but they're not exactly a cheap alternative.

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

#543

Post by _carl_jung »

patentatt wrote: post #120
munk-a wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hearing aides are also insanely cheap to produce, they are not complicated devices and that market is only surviving due to the medical device status of them causing a high barrier to entry.

I’d take issue with “not complicated.” They are very tiny, have to be very low power, and they run a surprising amount of real-time DSP. Then the whole electronics package has to be integrated with an acoustics package including multiple microphones and transducers. And the higher quality all of those acoustical components are, the more transparent the end product. And it all has to be durable enough for continuous w…

Everything you described would be impressive if this were 1980.

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

#544

Post by lorenzhs »

interlocutor wrote: post #236
evarady wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: Costco and Walmart surface their lenses on equipment made by Essilor (Satisloh subsidiary). Also if you're buying "transitions" branded photochromatic lenses - that's Essilor too.

If EssilorLuxottica was an American company the EU would have fined them a few billion dollars, and split them up a long time ago.

Why? Which American companies did the EU split up? There was an article in the Economist this week criticising the US for fines levied on foreign businesses for misdeeds elsewhere: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/01/19/the-trouble-wit...

It's a recurring theme in HN discussions about fines that all the Americans think the evil EU is unfairly fining fine American companies, and all the Europeans think the evil Americans are unfairly fining their countries' fine companies :)

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

#546

Post by rsynnott »

Scoundreller wrote: post #497
rsynnott wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

How much do the insurers get charged? Because people can go long periods of time between exams/pairs as adults, it's possible they keep their cash prices low to convince the uninsured to step in the door.

Private optical insurance _exists_, but basically only as a corporate perk that pays for more expensive frames, etc. Most people wouldn't have it, and it didn't exist at all until a few years ago. Private health insurance is more common, but doesn't pay for glasses or routine eye tests.

I believe PRSI (the government social insurance scheme) pays about 30 euro for a basic eye test. At the big local chain, people without either PRSI or medical card (this would mostly be non-resident foreigners, plus maybe some early retirees etc), pay 30 euro, plus about 60 euro for basic frames with basic lenses.

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

#548

Post by masklinn »

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…

> 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.

The vast majority of my glasses' cost is the lenses, last time around they cost me >$200 each IIRC. I didn't even change the frames, just got the lenses replaced.

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

#549

Post by wccrawford »

moftz wrote: post #24
wccrawford wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, the legs on the cheap glasses online are rarely as long as they should be. That means the bend in the leg sits just forward of my ear. The practical difference in negligible, though. They feel just fine, and they don't fall off or anything. So yeah, I buy all my glasses online, and have been for years.

Most of the time you can adjust this with a heat gun. I've seen the guy in target optical do it at his desk.

They're metal legs with a plastic coating that was molded, in my case. Can't really bend them or reshape them.

And for the plastic ones, it would mean the ends of the legs would be rather short, leaving them to sit funny on the desk when open and possibly more likely to fall off if you lean forward.

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

#550

Post by gambiting »

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.

That's insane.

I've recently bought a pair of regular glasses as well as prescription sunglasses. Regular ones use Mont Blanc frames(considered expensive) + some pretty good lenses(best ones they offered anyway). Total cost: £400 for everything.

Sunglasses: Ray-Ban frames + their own Ray-Ban G15 prescription lens(again, pretty expensive) - total cost £320 for everything.

I just don't understand - how are those people you mention paying 1000 euro for glasses(I assume you mean lenses)????? Are they some incredibly complex custom lenses that they are getting? Mine are for nearsightedness + slight astigmatism in one eye.

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