Big price differences may open your eyes
By best estimates, 3 out of 4 Americans wear eyeglasses, contact lenses or both. Some of us can’t function without putting them on (or in); others are lucky to need them only for reading or driving. But we all spend a lot of money — not to mention time — on getting the right glasses or lenses. And lots of us are spending more than we have to, according to Bay Area Consumers’ Checkbook and Checkbook.org.
Checkbook evaluated local optical providers, comparing prices and collecting consumer ratings. On a range of frame models, Checkbook’s shoppers found price differences of $200 and higher for the same eyeglasses. For a oneyear supply of daily disposable contact lenses (including exam, fitting, and follow-up visits), prices varied by as much as $587. Some examples:
Kate Spade Miranda frames and lenses ranged from $275 to $615, with an average price of $403.
Nike 8098 frames and lenses ranged from $296 to $508, with an average price of $410.
Ray-Ban RX5286 frames and lenses ranged from $261 to $473, with an average price of $346.
A one-year supply of 1Day Acuvue Moist daily disposable contact lenses, exam, fitting and follow-up visits ran from $577 to $1,044, with an average cost of $792.
A one-year supply of Air Optix Aqua monthly disposable contact lenses, exam, fitting and follow-up visits ran from $233 to $681.
If you’re buying glasses, it’s important to know that most frames you’ll find in big vision center chains — including those sold under almost all popular brand and designer names — are made by just a few Italian companies with names you probably won’t recognize: Luxottica, Marcolin and Safilo. Luxottica not only manufactures millions of pairs of glasses annually under its brands and under license for dozens of well-known brands, but it also sells them via more than 7,200 retail stores it runs, which include Pearl Vision, LensCrafters, optical departments within Target stores, and Sunglass Hut.
Because Luxottica designs and manufactures its generic frames in the same factories as designer frames, it’s difficult when shopping to determine whether there’s really any quality differences between two nearly identical frames. Are those designer-label frames that cost several hundreds of dollars more than a no-name brand really worth the extra cost? Because they were designed and made in the same factory, usually not.
Several other companies — including Costco, Walmart and Warby Parker — seek to challenge Luxottica’s near monopoly. While these three retailers’ offerings of eyeglasses are so different from their competitors’ that Checkbook can’t report price comparison scores for them, they offer good prices and selection and deserve your consideration.
Checkbook also found that online-only retailers offered lower prices than local stores — some online prices were less than half of local stores for the identical frames and lenses. The online retailers also offered a wider selection than brick-andmortar stores. For contacts, online stores offered prices that, on average, were lower than local retailers, but some local retailers — like Costco, actually beat the online providers on price.
Online stores carry the disadvantage of not allowing you try on frames and get feedback from staff, but, like online retailers in other fields, they typically have liberal return policies. Check the policy out before you buy.
If you shop online, be ready to provide your current prescription; the provider will call your optometrist or ophthalmologist to confirm the information.
If it’s your first pair of glasses or lenses, or you’re changing styles, or you have a new prescription, you might like the advice and help you can find at a local store. But as with price, it’s worth shopping — Checkbook found big store-to-store differences in customer satisfaction. Checkbook collected customer ratings for 133 outlets: some were rated “superior” for “overall quality” by at least 90 percent of their surveyed customers, while others got such favorable ratings from fewer than 50 percent.
Chains and franchise operations were rated lower than other stores, but there was variation among chain and franchise locations. The chain or franchise operations with the lowest percentage of “superior” overall ratings were LensCrafters (45 percent), JC Penney (48 percent) and Sears (48 percent). Costco and For Eyes tied for the highest percentage (64 percent).
If you go with a local outlet, you won’t have to pay out the nose for the best service: Many local stores that offer lowerthan-average prices also received Checkbook’s top rating for service quality.