Costco only sells ONE progressive?!?

[William Walker]

Bill, I wsh I had a clue as to what the acronyms after your name went!

Thanks for the support.

[optiboard1]

never worked at a costco knew someone who did cold in winter hot in summer they were near the door they also use to tell me the frames were junk and they hated to work on them it sounds like you already made up your mind so have fun

you made a comment on overtime for sundays after reading the rest your old boss must have been a jerk and cheap if he opened up on a sunday whats next holidays?

[SkiBunny]

your old boss must have been a jerk and cheap

newsflash: they ALL are, lol

[deeseyes]

I think you hit the nail on the head, very well said Bill. I now work for Costco and I have had no complaints about our lenses. I have been in the business of over 13 years, from the small mom and pop optical shops to the large corps. like cole and US vision I don't have to worry about the commision sales to keep my check from getting cut for lack of warrenty sales like at the US Vision locations. The benefits are great. and the sky is the limit with the company as for promotions within the company. I get e-mails everyday about open management positions and nationwide. Go for it!!

I can fit any progressive I want. I have been Independent since 1978.
The lens I fit most is Navigator long or short channel usually in Sunsensors. It is a great lens and a good buy for the customer. I use the AO Pro as a budget lens maybe 1 or 2 a month. In my opinion if a progressive is fitted properly most any of them will work fine. Since 1971 I have had better than 98% success on progressive fits. I have fit many different brands over the years and am convinced that like most everything in this country most of the "info' from manufactures is pure hype.
The two most common reasons for failure, in my opinion is, 1- fit too low and 2- pd is off. Oddly enough a lot of people still fit them too low.
I always check a new customer to see where the old lens is fitted for height. If I find them low I ask them if they raise their head or the glasses to read. If they say yes, I explain that I am raising them and a new adjustment for them will occur. Then I tell them how much better the near will be. Works every time.
So GO TO WORK for COSTCO and enjoy yourself. They respect your ability more than any "eye doctor". Eye doctors think they know it all. I have a low opinion of most all of them I have ever known. OD's want to be "medical without the training" and MD's think they are god.
Costco is where I would work if I was going to work for someone else. I know a lot about them and if you are young and want a good retirement, GO COSTCO.
Money is better than LDO,ABO,NCLE or working in a professional office where most of the crappy fits come from.
Best of luck to you at COSTCO.
Bill West, TBDOA - IWFMO - NPOBSH

[Scot Topia]

I got a quote on Ovation progressives from a Costco and I asked about AR coating. They only provide one option that I was told was the "standard" no-name Essilor AR coating (+$30). I think that there are at least three options available elsewhere: standard (cheapest), Crizal (mid-price) and Alize (most expensive). At least those are available for Essilor Varilux lenses.

Do other places offer AR options with Ovation lenses or do Crizal and Alize not work well with Ovation? Are the differences not significant or worth the price difference with Ovation lenses? Does anyone think that a non-standard AR is so much better that the customer should either insist on Crizal or Alize or take their business elsewhere?

Thank you.

[SkiBunny]

I was skeptical about whether alize was worth the premium price, but after much consideration, i'm decidedly in favor of it. If you buy an essilor/varilux lens, try to work alize into your budget, even if it means compromising on something else (eg. frame cost or higher index).

Funny thing about costco was that up here they push/use alize by default, mind you they don't use ovation they offer only a choice of varilux (comfort, ellipse, panamic).

[For-Life]

I got a quote on Ovation progressives from a Costco and I asked about AR coating. They only provide one option that I was told was the "standard" no-name Essilor AR coating (+$30). I think that there are at least three options available elsewhere: standard (cheapest), Crizal (mid-price) and Alize (most expensive). At least those are available for Essilor Varilux lenses.

Do other places offer AR options with Ovation lenses or do Crizal and Alize not work well with Ovation? Are the differences not significant or worth the price difference with Ovation lenses? Does anyone think that a non-standard AR is so much better that the customer should either insist on Crizal or Alize or take their business elsewhere?

Thank you.

I would assume that the $30 one is RF99.

When I sell Essilor products I only offer Alize.

RF-99 is a poor AR with poor adhesion.

Crizal is great, but when Alize is only a few dollars more it is not worth going with Crizal.

I mainly sell Ovations here.

[fvc2020]

are things so different in Canda that Essilor sells their premium products to Costco? Just curious??


Christina

[lensguy]

are things so different in Canda that Essilor sells their premium products to Costco? Just curious??


Christina

If you are talking about things like panamic, crizal, comfort......yes
The only "essilor" product they do not seem to carry is nikon (progressives), but that seems to be changing.

[SkiBunny]

are things so different in Canda that Essilor sells their premium products to Costco? Just curious??


Christina

I can assure you that the costco-unionville store (i.e., in a north-central suburb of toronto about a dozen miles from downtown) offers ONLY Comfort, Ellipse and Panamic, all with Alize. That costco store does NOT offer ovation, in fact when i asked the optician told me they dont make any money from it.

But at a costco in a less affluent part of town (and i don't mean seedy by any stretch), they do offer Ovation in addition to that varilux trio. Crizal or Alize.

BTW in retrospect I'd have NO problem buying from costco, if i had an experienced good optician I liked. That was moot because I didn't see a frame i liked; they're a bulk-buyer limited-choice operation.

[sharon m./ aboc]

Look down your nose at Costco all you want. I've worked for them for just over a year and they are a great company with many perks! I originally came the this forum to discuss mono pd's on flat-tops. I feel they should be symetrical.... even if it means some unwanted prism for the patient. Flat tops just look too strange when they're not evenly lined up in the frame. Costco only sells the ovation progressives but we have a new short-corridor progressive (14mm min. seg.) I have a pair and they're great!!!! Our A/R coating is Vivex. It's a good product.

[William Walker]

Hi all,

I have now been working for Costco for a little over a month. The pros and cons have been pretty much in line with what I have been expecting them to be. The $30.00 AR is the Vivix AR. I haven't been able to do any research on it yet, but can anyone give any input on the Vivix AR?
Thanks for the replies.

[rinselberg]

Vivix AR is a product of
http://www.icoatcompany.com/

[Steve Machol]

Vivix AR is a product of
http://www.icoatcompany.com/

Amd when I was in the business, I Coat was definitely one of the premier AR coating companies in the U.S. Great company and great product.

[eyegoddess1028]

I work for Sears Optical. We sell the ovation only in aspheric poly. Plastic we sell the natural. When you are dealing with corporations, they contract with certain manufaturers and can buy bulk cheaper. We can order other progressives, but it costs our labs more which in any business means passing on to the customer. and we can have silly sales like $88 for frames and natural no line bifocals. Most of todays customers look for price over anything else, and as hard as opticians educate their customers, price is one of the highest factors. Just look at contact lens patients that dont care if they get their contacts over the internet or at the doctors office. Eyewear, hearing aids, even medications are dispensed more and more in RETAIL atomspheres. Most of todays customers don't even stay with the same chain, just where the sale is the best. example- I have a customer screaming at me because he cant see the same out of his new eyewear like his old. he came in for the sale, told me that he doesnt want any extras. i informed him that he will have problems adapting to the new lenses (basic cr-39, adaptar in a +6.00,) because his old pair was a premium lens (varilux comfort, hindex, ar the works) and explained the benefits his lens had over the sale lens. I would have rather not sold him a pair to be honest. but he didnt want to pay a dime over the sale, and now he's saying that all lenses are the same so why cant he see....long story short, money in the customers pocket and the business pocket is all it boils down to.

andee aboc/ncle

[Bill West]

You are exactly right. Some people still want a better product and a first class job. However, since the chains appeared the majority of folk want "the best deal". Price,Price,Price, and then like you say, B****, B****, B****! Then you have the CRAP that Lenscrafters is doing. You don't like them, we will swap them, all with a money back guarantee and a $100.00 discount.
Is that begging or what?

Hell if they would hire only first class people and get it right the first time they would'nt need to have a candy A** deal like this. I would be ashamed to work for such an outfit. Every decent Optician that works for them should walk out today. Talk about degrading the profession. I been in this thing for over 45 years and it is down right disgusting what has happened to this profession. I would say this to all the chains. Keep up the lousy work and keep the flow of unhappy people coming. Keep hustling them and pissing them off. Business is great.

I work for Sears Optical. We sell the ovation only in aspheric poly. Plastic we sell the natural. When you are dealing with corporations, they contract with certain manufaturers and can buy bulk cheaper. We can order other progressives, but it costs our labs more which in any business means passing on to the customer. and we can have silly sales like $88 for frames and natural no line bifocals. Most of todays customers look for price over anything else, and as hard as opticians educate their customers, price is one of the highest factors. Just look at contact lens patients that dont care if they get their contacts over the internet or at the doctors office. Eyewear, hearing aids, even medications are dispensed more and more in RETAIL atomspheres. Most of todays customers don't even stay with the same chain, just where the sale is the best. example- I have a customer screaming at me because he cant see the same out of his new eyewear like his old. he came in for the sale, told me that he doesnt want any extras. i informed him that he will have problems adapting to the new lenses (basic cr-39, adaptar in a +6.00,) because his old pair was a premium lens (varilux comfort, hindex, ar the works) and explained the benefits his lens had over the sale lens. I would have rather not sold him a pair to be honest. but he didnt want to pay a dime over the sale, and now he's saying that all lenses are the same so why cant he see....long story short, money in the customers pocket and the business pocket is all it boils down to.

andee aboc/ncle

[toddb]

I agree with Bill and William.Im currently moving from a high end office to a sears to manage.Most progressives are going to work.

[eyegoddess1028]

which sears are you moving to?

I agree with Bill and William.Im currently moving from a high end office to a sears to manage.Most progressives are going to work.

[HarryChiling]

I went from a Pearle Vision to an OMD's office because the money was better and I have recieved nothing but headaches. The staff is incompetent, the doctors are god, and any advice I give to my patients buying lenses is trumped by the doctor 80% of the time making me look stupid and ending up with me dealing with a customer irrate because the doctor steared them towards a horrible option, wich is my fault becaus the doctor trumped what I said so I must be the idiot. Good for you William for going with the chain. Private prctices must take advantage of you in order to eak out a profit, and most private offices are owned by gready f**ks. Just my opinion.

[rolandclaur]

I'm definetly not a big fan of the Vivixx AR coating. It's applied through a dipping process instead of the normal vacumn deposition and it is incredibly hard to clean.. I-Coat promotes it as being hydrophobic and anti-stat but I can see almost no oleophobic or sealed top layer at all when I clean the glasses. But it comes with a 1 year warranty.

[Jim Schafer]

I'm definetly not a big fan of the Vivixx AR coating. It's applied through a dipping process instead of the normal vacumn deposition and it is incredibly hard to clean..

Rolandclaur,
Vivix is not a dip AR.
I think you were misled, it is the hardcoat I-Coat applies by dip and thermal cure that serves as the base for the AR stack.
Here is a link to the I-Coat site and a pretty good explanation of their process. http://www.icoatcompany.com/vivix.html

I supplied Jack Jue with Transitions lenses when he was developing Vivix. It tested very well with all of our lens materials. At the time Vivix was released only a handful of premium AR's were doing dip and thermal cure base hardcoats. It is always great to see an independent come up with a world class product.
regards,
Jim

[coda]

I'm definetly not a big fan of the Vivixx AR coating. It's applied through a dipping process instead of the normal vacumn deposition and it is incredibly hard to clean.. I-Coat promotes it as being hydrophobic and anti-stat but I can see almost no oleophobic or sealed top layer at all when I clean the glasses. But it comes with a 1 year warranty.

Like others I have to disagree with this characterization. I've done a lot of comparitive testing recently and i-coat products consistently test at the top of the bunch for abrasion resistance, durability and cleanability. Better than a number of products with 'more recognizable' names.

[rolandclaur]

Could the variations that I have been experiencing in terms of the AR quality I have seen at my store be a result of the lab work being done by the facility that we farm out our lenses to? Apparently our Costco lab sends out all AR jobs to a separate lab to apply the AR and when I asked my optical manager who has been working for the company for almost 20 years, she said that they don't do backside AR because the lens is AR dipped.


The promotional material for the Vivix I have read states that it is hydrophobic and resistant to smudging, fogging, etc. I have worked with Alize, Platinum coating from Zeiss, and the Teflon, and these coatings have definetely been better than what I have seen so far.. I definetely don't want have a close minded, ignorant opinion of a product without comparing it to what others thing. So I'm opened to being enlightened fellow optiboarders...

[rinselberg]

The iCOAT website displays an upgraded version of Vivix, called Vivix Stainless.

Vivix Stainless is described as the same Vivix hardcoat/AR stack, finished with an upgraded "super slick" hydro/oleophobic topcoat. (Quoting the website.)

http://www.icoatcompany.com/stainless.html

[AWTECH]

Could the variations that I have been experiencing in terms of the AR quality I have seen at my store be a result of the lab work being done by the facility that we farm out our lenses to? Apparently our Costco lab sends out all AR jobs to a separate lab to apply the AR and when I asked my optical manager who has been working for the company for almost 20 years, she said that they don't do backside AR because the lens is AR dipped.

If you are correctly understanding your manager, I would have to say she does not understand AR at all. Many people despensing AR have been confused with technical lingo and then the consumer is confused and doesn't know who to trust. In almost all cases in the US AR is applied in a vacuum chamber. (I know there are some small systems using Sol-Gel, but I would guess much less than 1% of AR is by any method other than Vacuum applied). The term "dipped coating", is like Mr. Schafer stated, it is the hard coating that is dipped into a liquid this places a 2-4 microns of coating that is then baked in an oven until it becomes cured.

What you may have not understood, or she did not say it correctly, is that you are providing a superior hard coat that is applied by a dip method on both sides of the lens. Then the AR is applied after the dip hard coating is cured.

The other way hard coating is done in the US is to apply a hard coat to the back side after surfacing using a spin on process to apply the hard coat and then cure this with Ultra Violet light. Ask if this is what she was saying and let us know.