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How Badly Are We Being Ripped Off On Eyewear? Former Industry Execs Tell All (latimes.com)
LA Times reports: Charles Dahan knows from firsthand experience how badly people get ripped off when buying eyeglasses. He was once one of the leading suppliers of frames to LensCrafters, before the company was purchased by optical behemoth Luxottica. He also built machines that improved the lens-manufacturing process. In other words, Dahan, 70, knows the eyewear business from start to finish. And he doesn't like what's happened. "There is no competition in the industry, not anymore," he told me. "Luxottica bought everyone. They set whatever prices they please."
Both Butler and Dahan (former executives with LensCrafters) acknowledged what most consumers have long suspected: that the prices we pay for eyewear in no way reflect the actual cost of making frames and lenses. When he was in the business, in the 1980s and '90s, Dahan said it cost him between $10 and $16 to manufacture a pair of quality plastic or metal frames. Lenses, he said, might cost about $5 a pair to produce. With fancy coatings, that could boost the price all the way to $15.
He said LensCrafters would turn around and charge $99 for completed glasses that cost $20 or $30 to make -- and this was well below what many independent opticians charged. Nowadays, he said, those same glasses at LensCrafters might cost hundreds of dollars. Butler said he recently visited factories in China where many glasses for the U.S. market are manufactured. Improved technology has made prices even lower than what Dahan recalled. "You can get amazingly good frames, with a Warby Parker level of quality, for $4 to $8," Butler said. "For $15, you can get designer-quality frames, like what you'd get from Prada."
Both Butler and Dahan (former executives with LensCrafters) acknowledged what most consumers have long suspected: that the prices we pay for eyewear in no way reflect the actual cost of making frames and lenses. When he was in the business, in the 1980s and '90s, Dahan said it cost him between $10 and $16 to manufacture a pair of quality plastic or metal frames. Lenses, he said, might cost about $5 a pair to produce. With fancy coatings, that could boost the price all the way to $15.
He said LensCrafters would turn around and charge $99 for completed glasses that cost $20 or $30 to make -- and this was well below what many independent opticians charged. Nowadays, he said, those same glasses at LensCrafters might cost hundreds of dollars. Butler said he recently visited factories in China where many glasses for the U.S. market are manufactured. Improved technology has made prices even lower than what Dahan recalled. "You can get amazingly good frames, with a Warby Parker level of quality, for $4 to $8," Butler said. "For $15, you can get designer-quality frames, like what you'd get from Prada."
While I agree with this I will point out that depending on your vision the service you get in getting the glasses rightly fitted is the hard part that may be worth paying for. FOr simple single vision lenses that's only weakly important. But for bifocals and even more critically progressives, the fitting is everything. I usually have to get two and sometimes 3 sets of glasses made before I'm happy. I've done tests where I have my vision measures four times in a row. They never agree. But some optics shops have a little leeway on progressives to tilt the degree of maginification in the center one way or the other. And that really helps when they get it right. It sucks when they don't.
So I don't mind paying for the service even though I know the glasses are not worth the price in materials.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses "2 Pairs Of Eyeglasses For $69.95".
No stinking thanks to having my eyes permanently altered by the lowest bidder.
most of the us health care system is an ripoff.
With
hidden fees
networks that are hard to stay 100% in.
any out of network person can drive by and bill you 100K with no control over stopping them.
each person can bill on there own.
if an place miss bills then you can be on the hook for the full rate
there are like 3-4 different rates for the same thing.
the mark up makes the apple app store look good
LASIK is down to about $200 per eye
Citation needed, I keep checking prices and the bargain basement back alley LASIK is still $1k.
This is the invisible hand of unregulated capitalism.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
With places like Zenni Optical (http://zennioptical.com) available, where a complete set of glasses with all kinds of coatings and options and extras comes out to under $50 US, why are people still buying at their optometrist's office?
There's several different places like Zenni online. Even with shipping and currency conversion, it's a lot less expensive to buy online than any eye wear places here in Canada.
And the quality is quite good, comparable to $200+ US frames and lenses. Even if the quality isn't as good as the uber-expensive ones, you can always just buy 2 or 3 pairs each year and still come out ahead. :D
The prices in the summary are why some of our family have started using https://www.zennioptical.com/ (no connection except as customer). One family member got very basic lenses & frames for $9 if memory serves (could be off but it wasn't even $40 with shipping), Mine were more but had more features. It was worth getting the account and submitting photos to "try on" glasses, but one order I placed would have been better if I had paid attention to the posted length of the temple and actual frame & lens dimensions: next one I did better and it is good now.
(My one complaint is that their customer service gave info that was overconfident -- they didn't really know. And their site EULA had terms I didn't like, and nobody was willing to discuss it, either at the posted contact info or the customer service. But the site FAQs etc were helpful for other things, and I was able to adjust frames myself, etc.)
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why would anyone assume there is a relationship between cost to produce something and the cost we have to pay?
Wrong question. Why would anyone assume that if something was being sold with a very large profit margin there would not be new entrants to the market undercutting the incumbents?
In many places you can buy glasses at much closer to the cost price, often online but sometimes in shops as well. Personally I like JINS. I find them more comfortable than designer frames and the last pair I bought was $30 (admittedly on sale but I think only $50 normally).
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Not affiliated, but I can get my lenses and frames from Zenni for about $30 a piece and I have terrible eyesight.
Same with me. I buy my glasses from zennioptical.com for $19.95.
If you are paying $99.95 at LensCrafters, it is not because of some vast capitalist conspiracy. It is because you are an idiot.
If medical equipment traded competitively, prices would be "just." The problem is that the medical market is a cartelized system that refuses to even let us know what the price of anything is.
For commodities.
If you look, you can find no name glasses at commodite price.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Logged in just to comment here on something I actually have experience with. I wore glasses since early grade 2, I had horrible near-sightedness, pretty much to the point of being blind without my thick glasses. Since I had lived my entire life (into my mid-30s) wearing glasses, I didn't actually think they were that big of a deal.
All I can say, is that without any hyperbole at all, the decision to get laser eye surgery was the best money I have ever spent in my life. You have no idea the freedom and "HD" vision that comes as a result. The slight inconveniences are way more than worth it. I just can't tell you enough how awesome it has been - do not discount it.
If you're interested, what finally made me look and take the dive was the fact I started skiing a lot, and the glasses fogging up under my goggles was highly annoying. I likewise could not use contacts for various reasons.