Originally Posted by
opti-refractonator
Do small businesses, (single optician, 1/2 staff) have any leverage available to them whem it comes to dealing with big chains or suppliers.
As a small store, I often times find it hard to compete with other optical *****houses that offer most of the same products that I do but at a unreasonably low price. My tiff is with the walmarts and the costco that sell boxes of contact for only a buck over the cost price. Ciba says that they sell them the product at the same price, which i don't believe.
My tiff with optical suppliers like lux, is that they sell frames to us that may be new, but were available in lenscrafters ( aka sears, pearl) many months before we were allowed to order them. Also, there are a ton of websites that sell frames and sunglasses and contacts online, I don't know whether the companies are turning a blind eye to this( maybe because they are moving product) or they actually can't do anything.
I have asked my contact lens reps about online sellers and they say that they are trying to deal with them but its very difficult to find where the product is coming from. I personally find this to be bull**** because anything can be traced to its origin.
I asked my lux reps about this, and there response has simply been that they cannot do anything about it.
My question is, do we have any leverage whatsoever?
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