Adapt or Perish - the law of the survival of the fittest.

[rbaker]

The manner in which the consumer obtains goods and services is changing - always has - always will. Long gone is the barter system and the mercantile system is a thing of the past. The mom and pop shoe store has given way to the Foot Lockers and their customers are now going on-line. Chances are you are now buying your electronics on line after selecting your product choice first at Best Buy. The major consideration for most consumers today is price and convenience.

The eyeglass business is not insulated from this metamorphosis no matter how hard we try to insulate it under the cloak of a medical or professional service. Glasses are a commodity, nothing more, nothing less. We seem to concentrate all of our efforts these days trying to combat the desires of the consumer to obtain a good product at a fair price by enacting government regulations and trying to enforce them and establishing restrictive office practices like, "we ain’t going to give them their stinking PD’s."

In the optical business the supply chain has undergone some disruption. Frame manufacturers now sell directly to the optical retailer rather than through wholesalers. Some see this as an improvement in distribution but by forcing Joe optician to purchase a given product from a single source they have total control over the price and can enforce “buy-ins and minimum purchases with no negotiations. We also see the vision care plans dictating most, if not all, of our business processes.

If you want to be around in five to ten years you had yea best adapt your business process to the new world that we all live in today. In the words of the Bard, Bob Dylan, “The times they are a’changin.“ Stop living in the problem and start live in the solution!

[SharonB]

+1000

[edKENdance]

To play the devil's advocate here...Bob Dylan didn't really change at all. He was actually quite good at what he did and was probably more successful as a result of not changing. You're probably gonna be ok if you're really good at what you do.

[Chris Ryser]

If you want to be around in five to ten years you had yea best adapt your business process to the new world that we all live in today. In the words of the Bard, Bob Dylan, “The times they are a’changin.“ Stop living in the problem and start live in the solution!

and here is the first answer, and there will be more like it.

You're probably gonna be ok if you're really good at what you do.

You will have to be better than good.............you will have to be excellent only, all the way and be known for it.

The web surfing buyer will look what the goods cost him/her on the web, and will compare with what he paid you the last time.

We all have to adapt to new commercial rules set by the internet sellers and followed by the masses.

[erichwmack]

Yes, but don't get too caught up with the web-buyer. This is only a percentage of the total amount of eye glass consumers And represents the least profitable segment not surprisingly. Its easy to get all worked up about the web-buyers. Solution: move past these low profit customers, focus on the larger and more profitable consumers. One way of looking at the internet market trend is to see it as an opportunity. The ranks of ho-hum/low-effort/stubborn to change opticals will thin out, with the most savvy, modern, and fittest surviving and becoming that much more profitable.

I think many opticals are run by people that don't know enough about business and how to be successful in changing market. Any change in the status-quo is viewed in a doom and gloom fashion.

Chris and Bob Dylan are right, Optical and eyewear is not an emerging business where you can sit on your haunches and pull in profits. Its mature and established and in that type of market only the intelligent and most able to adapt will survive in the long run....but doing so is not rocket science

[drk]

The manner in which the consumer obtains goods and services is changing - always has - always will. Long gone is the barter system and the mercantile system is a thing of the past. The mom and pop shoe store has given way to the Foot Lockers and their customers are now going on-line. Chances are you are now buying your electronics on line after selecting your product choice first at Best Buy.

Agree. Change happens. But not all change is good change. Do you like a big, fat, federal deficit? That's change, too. Do you like ISIS? Uh, not all change is good change.

The major consideration for most consumers today is price and convenience.

Remember: Cost, service, quality: choose two. You really thing everyone wants to leave off quality? With their vision?

The eyeglass business is not insulated from this metamorphosis no matter how hard we try to insulate it under the cloak of a medical or professional service. Glasses are a commodity, nothing more, nothing less.

So, so wrong. Are all lenses the same? Well, yeah, low-power SV CR39 lenses may be. But that's about it.
Are all frames the same? No...way. You need to rethink what the term "commodity means".
DEFINITION of 'Commodity'

1. A basic good used in commerce that is interchangeable with other commodities of the same type. Commodities are most often used as inputs in the production of other goods or services. The quality of a given commodity may differ slightly, but it is essentially uniform across producers.

We seem to concentrate all of our efforts these days trying to combat the desires of the consumer to obtain a good product at a fair price by enacting government regulations and trying to enforce them and establishing restrictive office practices like, "we ain’t going to give them their stinking PD’s."

Again, they're regulated medical devices. I'm dismayed you don't understand that.

In the optical business the supply chain has undergone some disruption. Frame manufacturers now sell directly to the optical retailer rather than through wholesalers. Some see this as an improvement in distribution but by forcing Joe optician to purchase a given product from a single source they have total control over the price and can enforce “buy-ins and minimum purchases with no negotiations. We also see the vision care plans dictating most, if not all, of our business processes.

Yes, I agree here. But if you're consistent, then since this is all about a "commodity" it shouldn't matter. But it does matter. What gets cut out in the above description? Service.

If you want to be around in five to ten years you had yea best adapt your business process to the new world that we all live in today. In the words of the Bard, Bob Dylan, “The times they are a’changin.“ Stop living in the problem and start live in the solution

You have offered no solution that I can find.

Here's the solution: WE ARE SERVICE PROVIDERS. MEDICAL SERVICES AT THAT.

Do I really need an exhaustive list of what services go into an optical, from the air conditioning, through the real, live, friendly face, to the carefully planned frame inventory, to the expert understanding of a prescription, optics, adaptation (and I could go on for another thousand characters)?

You're just beat down, man. I challenge opticians to not give in. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

[Craig]

To play the devil's advocate here...Bob Dylan didn't really change at all. He was actually quite good at what he did and was probably more successful as a result of not changing. You're probably gonna be ok if you're really good at what you do.

Even Dylan has changed and now will do interviews for his causes. I saw him in concert and he never even spoke to the audience, he came out played and left.

[Chris Ryser]

You have offered no solution that I can find.

Here's the solution: WE ARE SERVICE PROVIDERS. MEDICAL SERVICES AT THAT.

Do I really need an exhaustive list of what services go into an optical, from the air conditioning, through the real, live, friendly face, to the carefully planned frame inventory, to the expert understanding of a prescription, optics, adaptation (and I could go on for another thousand characters)?

If you are a service provider ...............then charge for it.

If you are selling glasses you also provide service, from a live frame choosing to the lab work to finish the lenses and get them into the frame, and the final checking and adjusting, plus the repeat adjustments............charge for it. The amount is yours to decide.

........and you might just about end up by being able to sell at similar prices than the good on-line optical's do without any service.

Consumers are ready to pay for service, while they buy products on-line for less than in stores.

So why not agree to a change of the payment system, if the end result is about the same, but consumers will come back to the retailer because they still love service.

[edKENdance]

Even Dylan has changed and now will do interviews for his causes. I saw him in concert and he never even spoke to the audience, he came out played and left.

He's never released a disco album or a rap album to try and generate sales with a younger market. Could you imagine how ridiculous that would look?

[Golfnorth]

Yes, but don't get too caught up with the web-buyer. This is only a percentage of the total amount of eye glass consumers And represents the least profitable segment not surprisingly. Its easy to get all worked up about the web-buyers. Solution: move past these low profit customers, focus on the larger and more profitable consumers. One way of looking at the internet market trend is to see it as an opportunity. The ranks of ho-hum/low-effort/stubborn to change opticals will thin out, with the most savvy, modern, and fittest surviving and becoming that much more profitable.

I think many opticals are run by people that don't know enough about business and how to be successful in changing market. Any change in the status-quo is viewed in a doom and gloom fashion.

Chris and Bob Dylan are right, Optical and eyewear is not an emerging business where you can sit on your haunches and pull in profits. Its mature and established and in that type of market only the intelligent and most able to adapt will survive in the long run....but doing so is not rocket science

Chris please read the above. The online market is still 2 - 3 % of the market when last estimated. To advise people to change their business model to cater to this bottom-feeder segment is just both inadvisable and risky. I would advise not to change any business model until internet purchases reach a much higher penetration.

Regards,
Golfnorth

[drk]

If you are a service provider ...............then charge for it.

If you are selling glasses you also provide service, from a live frame choosing to the lab work to finish the lenses and get them into the frame, and the final checking and adjusting, plus the repeat adjustments............charge for it. The amount is yours to decide.

........and you might just about end up by being able to sell at similar prices than the good on-line optical's do without any service.

Consumers are ready to pay for service, while they buy products on-line for less than in stores.

So why not agree to a change of the payment system, if the end result is about the same, but consumers will come back to the retailer because they still love service.

I agree that we'd be better off selling materials + service.

Like Golfie says, we are kvetching about nothing, really, as far as marketshare.

[Paul Smith LDO]

To play the devil's advocate here...Bob Dylan didn't really change at all. He was actually quite good at what he did and was probably more successful as a result of not changing. You're probably gonna be ok if you're really good at what you do.

He went from an acoustic guitar, playing folk music in coffee shops to plugging in(electric) and playing huge venues.

[edKENdance]

He went from an acoustic guitar, playing folk music in coffee shops to plugging in(electric) and playing huge venues.

Playing the same songs.

[Chris Ryser]

I would advise not to change any business model until internet purchases reach a much higher penetration.

When will that happen ? Is it not wise to take action before it happens ?

I grew up during WW2 and father who had friends with a coffee plantation in Guatemala where worked as a young optician for 4 years before returning to Switzerland received 2x50 kg bags of un-roasted coffee which lasted during the war. He also sold glasses into women and mens convents out in the country side against against meat and butter which was rationed during war time.

In the business he also stocked a few thousand pairs of uncut lenses which helped when things got hard to obtain.

GM Oshawa plant closings would have ‘profound’ impact, union study says

GREG KEENAN - AUTO INDUSTRY REPORTER
The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Mar. 30 2015, 6:00 AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Mar. 30 2015, 6:06 AM EDT




The closing of two General Motors Co. assembly plants in Oshawa, Ont., would wipe out about 30,000 jobs, slice more than $5-billion out of Ontario’s gross domestic product and cost the federal and Ontario governments $1-billion in lost revenue.

Those are among the conclusions of an economic impact study of the two plants, which was prepared by the Centre for Spatial Economics on behalf of Unifor, the union that represents hourly paid workers at the two factories.

“The closure of that facility would have a profound impact on the communities in the eastern half of the GTA, for [Ontario] as a whole and indeed for the Canadian economy,” says the study, which is scheduled to be released Monday.

see all of it: -------> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...ticle23678531/


Just look ahead, be prepared, the signs are there.

[Golfnorth]

When will that happen ? Is it not wise to take action before it happens ?

I grew up during WW2 and father who had friends with a coffee plantation in Guatemala where worked as a young optician for 4 years before returning to Switzerland received 2x50 kg bags of un-roasted coffee which lasted during the war. He also sold glasses into women and mens convents out in the country side against against meat and butter which was rationed during war time.

In the business he also stocked a few thousand pairs of uncut lenses which helped when things got hard to obtain.



see all of it: -------> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...ticle23678531/


Just look ahead, be prepared, the signs are there.

Yes all gloom and doom ahead! I should just close up and go on unemployment.
BTW my sales are up 10% in this fiscal (since Nov 1st).

Regards,
Golfnorth

[MikeAurelius]

Yes, they are "medical devices" in the same way that toothbrushes are "medical devices" (per the FDA).

Y'all know where I stand on PD's, so I won't pick at that scab...

Millennials are what is driving the market to change, and you ignore them and how they purchase at your peril. The next to arrive on the scene will be their children, and they will be just as "internet driven" for purchasing as their parents are.

The fact of the matter is that there is essentially zero regulatory control over eyewear. It was a joke 35 years ago when FDA was "inspecting" semi-finished lens manufacturers, and it's even more of a joke today. About the only FDA-related controls I have seen in the past couple of years was the interception of completed eyewear coming in from China that was missing import documentation and had fake regulatory reports.

Individual states CANNOT interfere with interstate commerce, that is the sole concern of the Federal Gummint. They CAN regulate their own internal intrastate commerce. Yes, you can moan and *itch and complain about onliners and over-the-state line retailers, but the fact is that no one can do anything about it, so move on and concern yourself with keeping your own business up and running. Compete or not. Allow showrooming or not. Bundle or not. Your store, your decision.

My company has survived for 40 years by finding niche markets and exploiting them to their fullest. You can't be all things to all people, but you can be a service to those who need and want what you have to sell.

[drk]

Yes, they are "medical devices" in the same way that toothbrushes are "medical devices" (per the FDA).

Cute, but not even close.

Millennials are what is driving the market to change, and you ignore them and how they purchase at your peril. The next to arrive on the scene will be their children, and they will be just as "internet driven" for purchasing as their parents are.

They also have tatooed necks.

The fact of the matter is that there is essentially zero regulatory control over eyewear. It was a joke 35 years ago when FDA was "inspecting" semi-finished lens manufacturers, and it's even more of a joke today. About the only FDA-related controls I have seen in the past couple of years was the interception of completed eyewear coming in from China that was missing import documentation and had fake regulatory reports.

It should be regulated by prescribers licensed by states. It's not just the central government's job, is it?

Individual states CANNOT interfere with interstate commerce, that is the sole concern of the Federal Gummint. They CAN regulate their own internal intrastate commerce. Yes, you can moan and *itch and complain about onliners and over-the-state line retailers, but the fact is that no one can do anything about it, so move on and concern yourself with keeping your own business up and running. Compete or not. Allow showrooming or not. Bundle or not. Your store, your decision.

True. However, if there were any political will (or even the desire to make money) those (wise) states that have dispensing laws can regulate intrastate flouting of dispensing laws by onliners. And make it sting.

But if people want to get their glasses from third world countries like Utah, there's nothing stopping them.

My company has survived for 40 years by finding niche markets and exploiting them to their fullest. You can't be all things to all people, but you can be a service to those who need and want what you have to sell.

The free market is a great, great thing, and you provide a great, great service.

Some would argue pure free market/no government (e.g. rules, accountability), but I just can't see that. Health care is probably left regulated, to a reasonable degree.

[Browman]

Cute, but not even close.



They also have tatooed necks.

I'm sure they'll be happy to take their growing market share away from your office.

Look, I know I'm not a mod, and I may take some flack for this, but, Drk... please... just stop. This is a public forum. What impression do you think you're giving to patients who stumble across this place looking for information on eyewear? If I were more jaded, and you didn't have such a body of posts to your name, I'd think you were a false flag set up by an onliner. The things you post to Optiboard make not only you, but the rest of us look bad by extension. Stuff like the above is EXACTLY what WP, etc. want Millennials to believe about opticians.

Please. If you really care about the good of B&M optical and your colleagues in the field, just stop it. It's becoming an embarrassment.

[drk]

For Browman's public reputation, and anyone who thinks I am the sole voice of opticianry, optometry, America, or apple pie, my disclaimer: I speak as an experienced INDIVIDUAL optometrist, who has cared for many thousands of people over a multi-decade career. That's all. Nobody official. Not sanctioned by Optiboard, only indulged.

I've spent years going to the mat for people and their visual welfare. It's what I do. Yes I get paid, but I'll tell it to you straight. I won't "sell" you a damned thing, ever.

I think that you "consumers" have a brain and can make your own minds up. I think, although you may be a couple of decades younger than I currently am, you are not stupid cows to be led by the nose, like I was not stupid when I was in my twenties. I also think you may just have a sense of humor. I especially don't think you like having your *** kissed by obsequious sales people.


For Browman: You like it when you silence people with whom you disagree? What is this great fear that Warpy Barker instills in your heart?

[MikeAurelius]

True. However, if there were any political will (or even the desire to make money) those (wise) states that have dispensing laws can regulate intrastate flouting of dispensing laws by onliners.

If the onliner is located in a different state, **all** transactions are considered interstate. Intrastate commerce applies only if the the seller and buyer are located in the same state. This is the same issue as sales tax. I sell a pair of plano filter spectacles: if they are in my 3 county area, I charge state and local sales tax. If they are located in the state but not in the 3 county area, I charge only state sales tax. If they are outside the borders of my state, I don't charge any sales tax.

States are denied the right to "regulate" any transaction (except perhaps liquor in some cases, wine usually) that takes place across state borders. That is the sole jurisdiction of the Federal Government. States can, however, regulate the transactions that take place inside their borders. Same thing with international sales. A given state cannot regulate any sale that takes place across an international border that it shares, again sole jurisdiction of the Federal Government.

I totally agree that there needs to be regulation leadership from the Federal Government. And there should be UNIFORM regulation across the "several" states. Getting there is going to be a problem, because current thinking in the upper levels of the Government is for less regulation instead of more. So, start voting Democrats into office.

[drk]

Mike: we agree on that.

Moderation is always good. No one particular "party" stands for good or bad or wise or stupid. Let's not kid ourselves.

[Browman]

F

For Browman: You like it when you silence people with whom you disagree? What is this great fear that Warpy Barker instills in your heart?

I like it when I silence sarcastic, judgmental, arrogant people who harm my reputation by proxy. Onliners fired a volley in a war for the hearts and minds of consumers; your flippancy just feeds more rounds into their cannons.

And, really? Warpy Barker? Is this fourth grade?

[drk]

Search engines are everywhere...ask Chris...watch out for War(p)y...

You know what's great about Optiboard, in my opinion? I think "consumers"--while not being allowed to bypass professional advice by posting directly (very nice call, Mr. M)--get an "unfiltered" view of what's going on behind the scenes.

No slick AR commercials; no lovely photochromic life-changing testimonials; just an insider's view of the optical world.

If you think about it, Brow, it's a beautiful thing.

That is why the HuffPo is your homepage, right?

[MikeAurelius]

Get a room, you two. ;-)

[AngeHamm]

Playing the same songs.

Dylan changed and innovated all the time!! It was HUGE news in the folk world when he started playing electric guitars; many hard-core fans completely abandoned him for years as a result of that. Then, after meeting T-Bone Burnett, he became a Christian and his lyrical content changed drastically. He's skewed more to the secular in recent years, but Dylan's songwriting and arranging have not stayed the same, not at all.