Kids Eyewear

Why do retail outlets charge 3-4x a lot more for any pair of prescription eyeglasses than any of the multitude of online eyewear merchants? The dramatic price distinction reflects some thing significantly a lot more than the price difference between performing company on the internet or in a brick and mortar store.

That is my theory: prescription eyewear was originally sold by largely optometrist owned-and-operated shops. The O.D. was extremely trained, had significant school debt, and higher salary expectations. Beyond this, s/he had a comparatively small base of clients. After all, how many individuals can an optometrist even see in a day? Maybe 10 at most?

These two key factors–high earnings expectations plus a small client base–resulted in a predictable outcome: a need to charge higher costs for prescription eyeglasses. This was then reinforced by the emergent eye insurance plan industry, which distributed the $400 eyeglasses and $150 exam into 12 neat, month to month insurance premiums covered by the patient’s employer.

This went on for decades and decades. Nearby eye medical doctors held all of the expertise on eyesight and charged an quantity reflective of the expertise, their brick and mortar presence and staff time, and their relatively low-volume of sales. A pair of eyeglasses, therefore, would frequently cost nicely more than $300.

Then came department shops. These shops brought a revolution to commodity shopping and drove smaller, low-volume mom & pops out of company. Their reach became ever a lot more broad and eventually commoditized once specialized service-based industries such as hair-dressing and, yes, optometry.

But the big box retailers did not base their cost on the true cost of providing a pair of eyeglasses. Instead, the price was based on what consumers were “used to” paying, based on their experience at the local optometrist. The big box chopped 30% or 40% off this cost and offered eyeglasses that were priced very competitively in relation to the nearby ecomony, but did still not reflect the true perfect-competition price of eyewear.

Fast forward a few years. The internet democratizes information, levels the playing field, and allows for some real competition in the eyewear industry. Over and above this, companies could reach a worldwide client base and could rely on an eye examination done elsewhere. Technology smoothed the process of providing a custom product to hundreds of thousands of consumers, and the once specialized, individualized experience of buying glasses from an individual, highly-paid eye doctor, became simply a matter of filling an order.

That, I believe, is why eyeglasses are so costly when purchased in the usual way.

Why do retail outlets charge 3-4x a lot more for a pair of prescription eyeglasses than any from the multitude of on the internet eyewear merchants? The dramatic cost distinction reflects some thing much more than the price distinction between doing business on the internet or in the brick and mortar shop.

That is my theory: prescription eyewear was originally sold by largely optometrist owned-and-operated shops. The O.D. was highly trained, had significant school debt, and high salary expectations. Over and above this, s/he had a relatively tiny base of clients. After all, how many people can an optometrist even see in the day? Perhaps 10 at most?

These two key factors–high earnings expectations plus a tiny client base–resulted in a predictable outcome: a need to cost high prices for prescription glasses. This was then reinforced by the emergent eye insurance plan industry, which distributed the $400 glasses and $150 exam into 12 neat, month to month insurance premiums covered by the patient’s employer.

This went on for decades and decades. Local eye medical doctors held all from the expertise on eyesight and charged an quantity reflective of the expertise, their brick and mortar presence and staff time, and their relatively low-volume of sales. A pair of eyeglasses, therefore, would often price nicely over $300.

Then came department stores. These shops brought a revolution to commodity shopping and drove smaller, low-volume mom & pops out of business. Their reach became ever more broad and eventually commoditized once specialized service-based industries such as hair-dressing and, yes, optometry.

But the big box retailers did not base their price on the true cost of providing a pair of eyeglasses. Instead, the price was based on what consumers were “used to” paying, based on their experience at the local optometrist. The big box chopped 30% or 40% off this price and offered eyeglasses that were priced very competitively in relation to the local ecomony, but did still not reflect the true perfect-competition cost of eyewear.

Fast forward a few years. The internet democratizes information, levels the playing field, and allows for some real competition in the eyewear industry. Over and above this, companies could reach a worldwide customer base and could rely on an eye examination done elsewhere. Technology smoothed the process of providing a custom product to hundreds of thousands of consumers, and the once specialized, individualized experience of buying eyeglasses from an individual, highly-paid eye doctor, became simply a matter of filling an order.

That, I believe, is why eyeglasses are so costly when purchased in the usual way.