I would like to know does anyone out there think there will ever be another super optical to try to compete with LC or have we seen the last of this?
I would like to know does anyone out there think there will ever be another super optical to try to compete with LC or have we seen the last of this?
Of course. Capitalism demands that the new will replace the old. Businesses get old and die or are swallowed up by competitors. Thirty years ago we had mass retailers like Woolworths, LL Newberry, and WT Grant beginning to get their clocks cleaned by the likes on Zayers and Bradlees. Today they are all gone, replaced by the Walmarts and Targets.
What’s different about the optical business?
The next generation of superoptical will have glasses pre-made. The sales people (no opticians) will be able to take them out of the box and put them on the customer's face. The challenge will be to convince the customer that the pair you have in stock is the one they need, even though the Rxs are all either a +2.00 or -2.00 with a +2.00 add, and the centers and segs are a standard 63/60 2 below center.:hammer:
Funny someone hasn't already tried this.
Ditto to the remark about the market always changing. No one will probably ever beat LC at their own business model, however, a new business model will eventually come along (perhaps not too much unlike the one that has been suggested above). Other industries have examples of this as well... Dominoes redefined the market for pizza, not by becoming the best pizza restaraunt (which Pizza Hut had already dominated), but by creating a new kind of market- home delivery.
Pete Hanlin, ABOM
Vice President Professional Services
Essilor of America
http://linkedin.com/in/pete-hanlin-72a3a74
The next generation?
In pre-civil war days, door-to-door salesman carried a large stock of ready made glasses. This is not a new concept, however, it does tie the Pizza delivery and the ready made idea together quite nicely.
unless ECCA can pull an overnight miracle (at the very least) with all it's brands, I think the days of the superoptical chains are pretty much gone... LC will eventually fade into mediocrity along with other chains (especially if they completely do away with the full-service labs (which is what I hear they are considering/trying in my area)). 'Course this could just be a cycle of ebb and flow... who knows, in 20 years, we could see rise to the chains again... I'm not going to worry about it when the lab I work still has 250-300 jobs per week to do.
Jeepers Peepers
There was one in Sarasota Square Mall for a couple of months back in the late '90s.
Four of five frame styles with pre cut lenses in clear and some sort of transition.
The went belly up pretty quick.
"Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde"
The next generation optical new tag line:Originally Posted by Johns
new "close enough" eyewear delivered to your door, in about an hour!
or
We'll have you seeing 20/50 in no time!
Last edited by Spexvet; 08-20-2004 at 02:34 PM.
LC has already faded into medocrity. They are like McDonalds - just try to get a turkey sandwhich (or Crizal Alize). LC will have 2 or 3 quality employees in any given store. Beyond that, it's the luck of the draw.
I concur that Alize is a turkey sandwich.
I suppose the matrix system would have to be a sh*t sandwich... :p
Speaking from first hand experience matrix was a joke but it was a good idea
Maybe you can get one in exchange for adjusting nosepads.
Of course there will be, ...............but most probably they will belong to a major frame manufacturer as Lux for example or to one or the other of the major lens manufacturers that allready own half the big optical laboratories worldwide is going to venture into the retail end. (this could be a natural solution)
Another version could be somebody with the necessary means starts one with the intention of selling out to either one of the 2 possibilities mentioned above to make a good buck.
i think your right chris, maybe hoya will take this aproach... in europe wholesale labs sell direct to the public and i can already see a trend in insurances like davis vision and spectera who require you to buy lenses from them directly and then pay us a meesly disp fee...
If you follwow the market trend on a business politac basis you will soon realize that the major lens companies as HOYA, ZEISS, ESSILOR have aquired, purchased, taken over, and are out to get many more, dozens of the most important laboratories from Europe to Asia as well as from North to South.
Just use the your think tank and start spinning the thread. Why are they doing that? Large corporation have only one thing in mind...........which is ..........getting larger. Make more money at whatever cost......because the funds wll spent will come back most of the time.
One major frame manufacturer will in the very near future control 35% of the optical retail market. They don't even need a super store They will be the superstore. And when the lens manufacturers decide to enter the retail we all will be employed by one or the other.
If that is the case, why are so many new independants opening on a regular basis? I can't keep up with all the new locations. And I don't service chains?
Lux is a super company.........not a super store.
OK i give in, ..................super super super. Maybe they own the own the word super too.
Thats not a bad idea.......if they don't maybe i'll buy it.
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