“Eyeglass sales are becoming a very competitive market, with frames and lenses available in a range of prices and quality levels,” Bajwa said. “We often see low-ball retailers promise price savings but fail to deliver the quality patients expect in terms of fit, comfort, durability and, of critical importance, precision in vision, over one or two years of daily wear,” he said.
Ranjeet Bajwa, president of the California Optometric Assn., suggested that consumers actually are getting good value for their money. I wasn’t able to make any headway even with Warby Parker, the New York-based eyewear company whose whole raison d’etre is to offer fashionable specs at a fraction of the price of other retailers.ĭr. It’s almost as if the last thing they want is to have to explain why consumers are paying 10 to 20 times what frames and lenses actually cost. I reached out to the parent company as well as the Luxottica and Essilor subsidiaries asking about how frames and lenses are priced. The combined entity is called EssilorLuxottica. Do you have Transitions lenses in your frames? You’re an Essilor customer. You go into a LensCrafters retail outlet, where the salesperson shows you Luxottica frames under various names, and then the company pays itself when you use your EyeMed insurance.Īnd Luxottica is even bigger after merging last fall with France’s Essilor, the world’s leading maker of prescription eyeglass lenses and contact lenses. Just pause to appreciate the lengthy shadow this one company casts over the vision care market. Italy’s Luxottica also runs EyeMed Vision Care, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Sunglass Hut and Target Optical.
Its owned and licensed brands include Armani, Brooks Brothers, Burberry, Chanel, Coach, DKNY, Dolce & Gabbana, Michael Kors, Oakley, Oliver Peoples, Persol, Polo Ralph Lauren, Ray-Ban, Tiffany, Valentino, Vogue and Versace. If you wear designer glasses, there’s a very good chance you’re wearing Luxottica frames. What the Vision Council probably didn’t want to get into is the fact that for years a single company, Luxottica, has controlled much of the eyewear market. Which is to say, don’t worry your pretty head. She said the Vision Council, a global voice for eyewear and eyecare, prefers to focus on “health and fashion trend messaging.”Īnd because it represents so many different manufacturers and brands, she said, it’s difficult for the association “to make any comments on pricing.” The group describes itself as “a nonprofit organization serving as a global voice for eyewear and eyecare.”īut after receiving my email asking why glasses cost so much, Kelly Barry, a spokeswoman for the Vision Council, said the group “is unable to participate in this story at this time.” I reached out to the Vision Council for an industry perspective on pricing. “At the very least,” Balber said, “there needs to be some transparency about how much things really cost.” She said soaring eyeglass costs should be a part of the country’s overall healthcare debate in light of the fact that many people simply couldn’t function without corrective lenses. “Anyone who wears glasses would agree that cost is out of control,” Balber told me. She figures she’s spent thousands of dollars over the years on new frames and lenses. The bottom line: You’re paying a markup on glasses that would make a luxury car dealer blush, with retail costs from start to finish bearing no relation to reality.Ĭarmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica advocacy group, has worn glasses her entire life. Lenses require precision work, but they are almost entirely made of plastic and almost all production is automated.Check out the prices of Chinese designer knockoffs available online. The true cost of a pair of acetate frames - three pieces of plastic and some bits of metal - is as low as $10, according to some estimates.Progressive, no-line lenses can run twice that amount. The average cost of a pair of single-vision lenses is $112.The average cost of a pair of frames is $231, according to VSP, the leading provider of employer eye care benefits.That’s roughly 126 million people, which represents some pretty significant economies of scale.About two-thirds of that number wear eyeglasses. adults use some sort of vision correction. The Vision Council, an optical industry trade group, estimates that about three-quarters of U.S.
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