Did you know that one company, Luxottica Group S.p.A., makes eyeglasses under at least 36 brands? Brands such as Oakley, Ray-Ban, Revo, Vogue, Ann Klein, Brooks Brothers, Chaps, DKNY, Prada, Polo, Ralph Lauren, and Versace? Did you know that this same company has over 6400 retail outlets in the U.S., Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom? Retail names such as Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Target Optical and K-Mart Optical. They also own EyeMed Vision Care, one of the leading managed vision care organizations in the U.S. They are the world’s largest eyewear company. Wordnet.princeton.edu defines monopoly as “a market where there are many buyers but only one seller”. Doesn’t that fit here? That’s not all. The founder, Leonardo Del Vecchio, is one of the top 50 richest men in the world. Think of that the next time you spend $400 for a pair of eyeglasses.
Why am I telling you all of this? I bought a new pair of glasses. I tried to do this online, in fact there is one particularly good site for advice if you are interested in doing it this way called GlassyEyes. It is harder to do this if you have a bifocal prescription like I do but not impossible. In the end, I decided to purchase a pair from Costco. Why? Simple. I found a frame that I liked there and the total price for the frame, progressive (no line bifocal) photochromic (automatically dims in bright light) lens, and coatings is $225. Not the cheapest but also not going to Luxottica either!
Jun 302009
