The courier driver shows new glasses...................

[Chris Ryser]

The driver for the courier company that picks up daily deliveries for the US border shipments comes into my office last Thursday and shows me his new glasses. Nice plastic front with gold colored thin metal temples with a type of flexible hinges I had not seen before, no make or model engraved.

Straight top 28 lenses, 15% grey tint and a AR coating, all in all looking like a perfectly nice job. He had ordered it on line, got it 2 weeks after ordering them in the mail, and paying the $ 57.00 advertised retail price.

He also claimed that the vision for distance and near was so much better and clearer than what he had with his older glasses which were PALS purchased from a local optician.

Should something like this not give us to think? On an other thread about " Is opticianry dead", there is the big argument about long schooling and more theoretical education needed, while the on-line opticals are grinding away without giving a hoot about professional rules, professional laws or state control.

There are still many people that have not heard about the on line optical sellers and their pricing, but I have seen their website performances increase drastically and wish that opticianry would positively counter this looming dragon instead of argue about more education while the dragon is convincing the consumer that cheaper is also as good.

[optical24/7]

Keep in mind the optical market is HUGE. And that market is very diversified. There's budget, up to luxury and everything in between. It's very dificult (and un-wise to try) to cater to all markets. One should pick their niche, but if you pick the budget market you will have stiff competition. There are already established budget outlets. I can think of 3 chains off the top of my head that can provide glasses for the price you quote.

Yet, with all these low cost outlets already established, how have most opticals grown and thrived? I think most of us here can attest to the fact that most of our clients have tried "budget" or nat'l chains before. Yet the majority come back to us. Why? I think the answer is multi-faceted. But it comes down to trust. They came back to us because they don't trust that other location to satisfy them because they were not satisfied the last time. Either they were not satisfied with selection, personel knowledge or product performance. I can't tell you how many times I've heard " I won't be going back to ______."

As far as on-lines penetration of the eye wear market; Even their own estimates are 1-2%. You talk about how many have not yet heard about on-line eye glass sellers. Keep this in mind, 1-800-CL's is about as well known and recognizable as Coca-Cola. Who hasn't heard of them? Yet, by all estimates, on-line CL sales only account for about 10% of the market, even after all these years of heavy, national TV advertising. And this is for a commodity, like a box of Tide detergent.

I don't expect the on-liners to dry up and go away, any more than I expect budget optical's down the street to go away. But should I alter my business plan and try to adopt their philosophy? Because they are competition? That's just it. They are not my competition. Some people are happy to eat at MC D's, while others prefer that nice steak house down the road. Does the fine steak house stop selling sirloin because Micky D opens up across the street? Of course not.

I've said this before; Eye wear will never surpass CL sales online (in percentages). Never.

The public is more decerning when it come to health and fashion. That's why even CL's are mostly sold through B&M opticals; the public trust their health provider more than a faceless on-line etity located God knows where. They are just as decerning when it comes to their appearance. The public want's to try on, feel, get advice, and get feedback on their eye wear, not just look at a frame superimposed digitally on their face.

Budget, middle of the road, luxury. There are many sub-markets to optical. Your competition depends on which market you cater to. On-line is budget's competition. I don't adjust my delivery system or services based on the budget opticals around me. My client base wants and expects better. It would be a dis-service to do otherwise. They want and expect that trust.

[wmcdonald]

That is why we need to better educate ourselves and expand our scope, Chris. We can either lie down (as we have done for years) and watch the world change around us while we remain the same "dispenser" we have always been, or change as well. The problem is a lack of vision for what could be, and a vastly different idea of what an Optician is from state to state.

[Barry Santini]

For the VAST majority of the public there exists no value/quality hierarchy in glasses, i.e., "glasses r glasses." Until this changes, drivers and average joes will show off how smart their online eyewear purchase was by referring just to price. And if we keep buying chinese crap, it's only gonna get worse.

B