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I worked on the retail IT side of things at Luxottica. I don't even think that you've scratched the surface of just how prevalent Luxottica is: you've touched

by imroot 4y ago

I worked on the retail IT side of things at Luxottica. I don't even think that you've scratched the surface of just how prevalent Luxottica is: you've touched the retail side of things, but, you also haven't touched the manufacturing side of things (Lux has patents on the hinges used in glasses), the wholesaling side of things (Lux supplies generic and branded frames to your local optician on less-than-preferred terms), and then just the genetic beast that is their optimization efforts. I discovered some ineffective linux and db management that was adding 15-30 minutes of closing time every night -- time where we'd have employees on the clock waiting to close the store -- and figured out why it was behaving the way that it was and fixed it so the 'point of sales' part of closing wouldn't be the hold up. Saved the company almost 13 million dollars a year in labor costs and 45 million in licensing costs when I came up with a way to replace the POS systems OS without needing a cross-ship of new hardware...and still got screwed around when it came to my hourly rate increased or getting my contract renewed... When my girlfriend's son passed away from complications with cancer, I had flowers and cards sent from some former coworkers, but, not a single person even reached out to me until a few months later, where they asked me if I was 'ready to go back to work' after cutting my contract. It was well known that if someone robbed a Sunglass hut, the most expensive item in the store to replace was the iPad...

rolenthedeep 4y ago
My fiance did store tech support, and holy SHIT I cannot believe that place manages to function day to day. There was some weird system that support staff had to RDP into, but the server was set to Spanish. Instead of, I dunno, fixing the language, all the support staff were given a document with translations of everything they need to use. There was another HR system that support staff again had to RDP into to change passwords or personnel details or something. But it was so horribly misconfigured that there was a delay of minutes between keypress on the staff's client and response from the server. This task routinely took half an hour to update a few text fields. Also yeah, they totally fucked him on hours and pay. The real big problem was the constant verbal harassment from store employees who are angry about systemic IT issues that have gone unresolved for years. One store has their internet drop out every single weekend. There's a ticket that's been open for years with hundreds of notes because the manager calls every weekend to report it.
kinleyd 4y ago
<It was well known that if someone robbed a Sunglass hut, the most expensive item in the store to replace was the iPad.> Wow, that's a powerful and damning assessment.
chasil 4y ago
Glasses aren't that expensive. I buy them from https://zennioptical.com https://zennioptical.com I don't think that I'd ever pay more than $100 for a frame again. The sunglasses that we buy in a drugstore can be had for paltry sums, why not prescription eyewear?
- savrajsingh 4y ago
  Is that the same co as eyebuydirect.com? That’s who I’ve used
- P_I_Staker 4y ago
  I definitely think it's cool that they have some pretty freaking cheap frames. That said, I didn't pay more than $100 for my frame. They didn't have that many $100+ glasses at the store. I think the frames that I bought for like $60 (didn't even hit the max, so they were free). Honestly, think they're nicer than most of the frames there. You can buy oakleys for like $40-70. Even the sale ones tend to look better than the ones on zenni. Some of the nicer zenni's are $40+ anyway. Of course it is really cool to see decent frames for $20 or less. I'm going to keep it in mind in the future.
- RajT88 4y ago
  Indeed. I buy 5 pairs of glasses at a time (cheapest ones I can manage which look OK). 5 at a time is still cheaper than 1/3rd the price of low cost normal glasses. And each of those 5 pairs is half as durable. It is a similarly wild situation where eye exams at Walmart can be cheaper than at a regular eye doctor covered by my insurance.
  - LorenPechtel 4y ago
    Something I have noticed with eye "insurance"--mostly they pay $X for particular things but when you look at what's available it's something like $X *above* what we pay at Costco. In one case I was even able to confirm that the "insurance" isn't actually paying anything. And the only time I've paid over $100 for frames is when I order the ones with a magnetic polarized clip-on that are hard to find. (And I wish I could find something like my old ones where the magnets were on top instead of on the bottom. It was more secure.)
marvin 4y ago
Huh. That's interesting. I've wondered for over fifteen years why the parts of glasses appear to be so incredibly similar between brands, never really having stumbled across any quality stuff that's markedly different.

by imroot 4y ago

rolenthedeep 4y ago

My fiance did store tech support, and holy SHIT I cannot believe that place manages to function day to day. There was some weird system that support staff had to RDP into, but the server was set to Spanish. Instead of, I dunno, fixing the language, all the support staff were given a document with translations of everything they need to use. There was another HR system that support staff again had to RDP into to change passwords or personnel details or something. But it was so horribly misconfigured that there was a delay of minutes between keypress on the staff's client and response from the server. This task routinely took half an hour to update a few text fields. Also yeah, they totally fucked him on hours and pay. The real big problem was the constant verbal harassment from store employees who are angry about systemic IT issues that have gone unresolved for years. One store has their internet drop out every single weekend. There's a ticket that's been open for years with hundreds of notes because the manager calls every weekend to report it.

kinleyd 4y ago

<It was well known that if someone robbed a Sunglass hut, the most expensive item in the store to replace was the iPad.> Wow, that's a powerful and damning assessment.

chasil 4y ago

Glasses aren't that expensive. I buy them from https://zennioptical.com https://zennioptical.com I don't think that I'd ever pay more than $100 for a frame again. The sunglasses that we buy in a drugstore can be had for paltry sums, why not prescription eyewear?

savrajsingh 4y ago
Is that the same co as eyebuydirect.com? That’s who I’ve used
P_I_Staker 4y ago
I definitely think it's cool that they have some pretty freaking cheap frames. That said, I didn't pay more than $100 for my frame. They didn't have that many $100+ glasses at the store. I think the frames that I bought for like $60 (didn't even hit the max, so they were free). Honestly, think they're nicer than most of the frames there. You can buy oakleys for like $40-70. Even the sale ones tend to look better than the ones on zenni. Some of the nicer zenni's are $40+ anyway. Of course it is really cool to see decent frames for $20 or less. I'm going to keep it in mind in the future.
RajT88 4y ago
Indeed. I buy 5 pairs of glasses at a time (cheapest ones I can manage which look OK). 5 at a time is still cheaper than 1/3rd the price of low cost normal glasses. And each of those 5 pairs is half as durable. It is a similarly wild situation where eye exams at Walmart can be cheaper than at a regular eye doctor covered by my insurance.
- LorenPechtel 4y ago
  Something I have noticed with eye "insurance"--mostly they pay $X for particular things but when you look at what's available it's something like $X *above* what we pay at Costco. In one case I was even able to confirm that the "insurance" isn't actually paying anything. And the only time I've paid over $100 for frames is when I order the ones with a magnetic polarized clip-on that are hard to find. (And I wish I could find something like my old ones where the magnets were on top instead of on the bottom. It was more secure.)

marvin 4y ago

Huh. That's interesting. I've wondered for over fifteen years why the parts of glasses appear to be so incredibly similar between brands, never really having stumbled across any quality stuff that's markedly different.