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Reading that just pissed me off to no end. Eyeglasses are not a luxury for me - they're an absolute necessity. I kind of feel like I'm being preyed upon here by

Reading that just pissed me off to no end. Eyeglasses are not a luxury for me - they're an absolute necessity. I kind of feel like I'm being preyed upon here by a bunch of Italian ripoff artists.

voodoomagicman 12y ago
check out zennioptical.com, you can find frames with lenses included for 10-30 dollars.
- drcode 12y ago
  One pair I got at zenni for $6.96 is the best pair of prescription glasses I've ever owned... it's inconceivable to me how it can be that cheap.
  - coldpie 12y ago
    Mmmh, you can get a brand new tiny pile of high-end electronics, including a touch screen, for $50-100. Stamping out some metal and putting some glass into it seems like something that should be around the $10 price point.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- 0003 12y ago
  Second this. I bought a 30-40 USD prescription lenses that has gotten me more compliments than my 200 pairs ever did. Plus there is no gaudy brand name / logo on them - it is exactly the style that fits me.
- mng2 12y ago
  I've been buying my glasses from Zenni for a couple years now. I'm rather nearsighted (-7), with astigmatism, so I was pleasantly surprised that the optical quality is pretty good. The frames are somewhat less consistent though, I imagine they have multiple suppliers. The part I like best about Zenni is the oleophobic hard AR coating option. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and actually lasts a fairly long time without scratching. (If you wear glasses you know that no matter how carefully you clean your glasses, they scratch. And the expensive coatings flake off.) Now I clean my glasses with soap and warm water in the morning, and the water just shakes off at the end. The anti-reflective aspect is somewhat lacking, but the ease of cleaning is what makes it for me.
- logfromblammo 12y ago
  And that's including shipping and all the fancy oleophobic anti-reflective coating options.
Retric 12y ago
"They don't make prescription lenses." You can also get cheap sunglasses ex: http://www.amazon.com/Matte-Reflective-Color-Rimmed-Sunglasses/dp/B00MQ6U740/ref=lp_2474995011_1_6?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1426095999&sr=1-6 http://www.amazon.com/Matte-Reflective-Color-Rimmed-Sunglass... It's basically the same thing as the watch market you can get cheap (<10$) watches but 'nice' quickly becomes hundreds of dollars. IMO, this has little to do with manufacturing costs it's all about the design, sale, and marketing costs.
steadicat 12y ago
When Americans do it, it’s entrepreneurship with a mastery of branding and marketing, but when Italians do it they’re ripoff artists?
- AlexandrB 12y ago
  When Americans do it, it's called a monopoly and gets the attention of the FTC. Did you read the article? > But other competitors told us Luxottica has them in a chokehold: if you make glasses, you want to be in their stores; and if you have stores, you want to sell Ray-Bans! So Luxottica can set the prices as high as it wants.
- ginko 12y ago
  Yeah, this is also the bend I get from this video. I wonder if this article would be made if it were an American company.
grkvlt 12y ago
You could make the same argument about clothes: Clothes are not a luxury for me, they're an absolute necessity. With the prices Gucci charge, it's like I'm being preyed upon... ;) But, in the UK I could choose to buy luxury glasses, but places like specsavers will always offer affordable GBP 20 frames with free lenses as well. And of course the eye test is also free in Scotland.
- bydo 12y ago
  Neither of these is true in the US; there are no chains with retail locations selling affordable frames, nor are there free vision prescriptions. Furthermore, Luxottica owns or is affiliated with the majority of locations writing vision prescriptions, and an up-to-date prescription is required to purchase a pair of glasses. It's like if Gucci not only was the most common retailer of clothing—and by an enormous margin—but also owned the tailors conveniently located next door.
  - brandonmenc 12y ago
    > there are no chains with retail locations selling affordable frames At most retail chains in the US, there's a small rack of BCGs and safety frames that cost around $30. I know, because I've purchased them as backups.
logfromblammo 12y ago
Functional eyeglasses are not expensive. There are several businesses that sell basic frames in a variety of shapes and sizes, with prescription lenses ground, coated, fitted to the frame, and shipped to the customer. It should not come as a surprise that they mostly come from China--apparently the natural enemy of the trademarked luxury brand. This is why if you have a "vision plan" through your employer, you can't get new glasses the same day, from anywhere. They show inflated US prices on the invoices, but behind the curtain, you're probably getting the same inexpensive goods from China as if you had just ordered them yourself. You can go a lot of places and just get a simple optometrics prescription for $10. Then you can take that to the web, and order 2 regular sets and one tinted set for less than the price tag on the cheapest, ugliest frame in your optometrist's office. All those frames are different brands of Luxottica. You are being preyed upon, in the same way that a lot of other people in the US who require durable medical equipment to maintain quality of life are being preyed upon. If you doubt this, search the web for prices on "underarm aluminum crutch". There is not a lot of variation in design for these. They are essentially a fixed length of a standard size of aluminum tube, cut, bent, and drilled by machines, and bolted together along with some rubber and foamed plastic parts. There are no patent encumbrances. Yet the price varies from less than $20 to over $120 for exactly the same thing. This is, in large part, due to health insurance rules. And this is why Wal-Mart and Costco and Warby Parker will eventually eat Luxottica's lunch. Because in a competitive market, you have to set your price based on the per-unit cost. Only a monopolist or oligopolist can charge based on what people will pay. This is the money quote: "Andrea Guerra: Everything is worth what people are ready to pay." And that is only true when the producers have pricing power, which only occurs in a non-commodity market. You don't have to be Isaac Newton to grind your own lenses. You can make a lens/mirror grinding machine out of washing machine parts and a controller like an Arduino. It should be impossible for a product that can be created in a nerd garage to be anything other than a competitive commodity market, shouldn't it? Will "open source eyeglasses" ever become a bona fide project?

Reading that just pissed me off to no end. Eyeglasses are not a luxury for me - they're an absolute necessity. I kind of feel like I'm being preyed upon here by a bunch of Italian ripoff artists.

voodoomagicman 12y ago

check out zennioptical.com, you can find frames with lenses included for 10-30 dollars.

drcode 12y ago
One pair I got at zenni for $6.96 is the best pair of prescription glasses I've ever owned... it's inconceivable to me how it can be that cheap.
- coldpie 12y ago
  Mmmh, you can get a brand new tiny pile of high-end electronics, including a touch screen, for $50-100. Stamping out some metal and putting some glass into it seems like something that should be around the $10 price point.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
0003 12y ago
Second this. I bought a 30-40 USD prescription lenses that has gotten me more compliments than my 200 pairs ever did. Plus there is no gaudy brand name / logo on them - it is exactly the style that fits me.
mng2 12y ago
I've been buying my glasses from Zenni for a couple years now. I'm rather nearsighted (-7), with astigmatism, so I was pleasantly surprised that the optical quality is pretty good. The frames are somewhat less consistent though, I imagine they have multiple suppliers. The part I like best about Zenni is the oleophobic hard AR coating option. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and actually lasts a fairly long time without scratching. (If you wear glasses you know that no matter how carefully you clean your glasses, they scratch. And the expensive coatings flake off.) Now I clean my glasses with soap and warm water in the morning, and the water just shakes off at the end. The anti-reflective aspect is somewhat lacking, but the ease of cleaning is what makes it for me.
logfromblammo 12y ago
And that's including shipping and all the fancy oleophobic anti-reflective coating options.

Retric 12y ago

"They don't make prescription lenses." You can also get cheap sunglasses ex: http://www.amazon.com/Matte-Reflective-Color-Rimmed-Sunglasses/dp/B00MQ6U740/ref=lp_2474995011_1_6?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1426095999&sr=1-6 http://www.amazon.com/Matte-Reflective-Color-Rimmed-Sunglass... It's basically the same thing as the watch market you can get cheap (<10$) watches but 'nice' quickly becomes hundreds of dollars. IMO, this has little to do with manufacturing costs it's all about the design, sale, and marketing costs.

steadicat 12y ago

When Americans do it, it’s entrepreneurship with a mastery of branding and marketing, but when Italians do it they’re ripoff artists?

AlexandrB 12y ago
When Americans do it, it's called a monopoly and gets the attention of the FTC. Did you read the article? > But other competitors told us Luxottica has them in a chokehold: if you make glasses, you want to be in their stores; and if you have stores, you want to sell Ray-Bans! So Luxottica can set the prices as high as it wants.
ginko 12y ago
Yeah, this is also the bend I get from this video. I wonder if this article would be made if it were an American company.

grkvlt 12y ago

You could make the same argument about clothes: Clothes are not a luxury for me, they're an absolute necessity. With the prices Gucci charge, it's like I'm being preyed upon... ;) But, in the UK I could choose to buy luxury glasses, but places like specsavers will always offer affordable GBP 20 frames with free lenses as well. And of course the eye test is also free in Scotland.

bydo 12y ago
Neither of these is true in the US; there are no chains with retail locations selling affordable frames, nor are there free vision prescriptions. Furthermore, Luxottica owns or is affiliated with the majority of locations writing vision prescriptions, and an up-to-date prescription is required to purchase a pair of glasses. It's like if Gucci not only was the most common retailer of clothing—and by an enormous margin—but also owned the tailors conveniently located next door.
- brandonmenc 12y ago
  > there are no chains with retail locations selling affordable frames At most retail chains in the US, there's a small rack of BCGs and safety frames that cost around $30. I know, because I've purchased them as backups.

logfromblammo 12y ago

Functional eyeglasses are not expensive. There are several businesses that sell basic frames in a variety of shapes and sizes, with prescription lenses ground, coated, fitted to the frame, and shipped to the customer. It should not come as a surprise that they mostly come from China--apparently the natural enemy of the trademarked luxury brand. This is why if you have a "vision plan" through your employer, you can't get new glasses the same day, from anywhere. They show inflated US prices on the invoices, but behind the curtain, you're probably getting the same inexpensive goods from China as if you had just ordered them yourself. You can go a lot of places and just get a simple optometrics prescription for $10. Then you can take that to the web, and order 2 regular sets and one tinted set for less than the price tag on the cheapest, ugliest frame in your optometrist's office. All those frames are different brands of Luxottica. You are being preyed upon, in the same way that a lot of other people in the US who require durable medical equipment to maintain quality of life are being preyed upon. If you doubt this, search the web for prices on "underarm aluminum crutch". There is not a lot of variation in design for these. They are essentially a fixed length of a standard size of aluminum tube, cut, bent, and drilled by machines, and bolted together along with some rubber and foamed plastic parts. There are no patent encumbrances. Yet the price varies from less than $20 to over $120 for exactly the same thing. This is, in large part, due to health insurance rules. And this is why Wal-Mart and Costco and Warby Parker will eventually eat Luxottica's lunch. Because in a competitive market, you have to set your price based on the per-unit cost. Only a monopolist or oligopolist can charge based on what people will pay. This is the money quote: "Andrea Guerra: Everything is worth what people are ready to pay." And that is only true when the producers have pricing power, which only occurs in a non-commodity market. You don't have to be Isaac Newton to grind your own lenses. You can make a lens/mirror grinding machine out of washing machine parts and a controller like an Arduino. It should be impossible for a product that can be created in a nerd garage to be anything other than a competitive commodity market, shouldn't it? Will "open source eyeglasses" ever become a bona fide project?