need help with frame lines

[mpowers]

Hello everyone,

I need advice on frame lines to carry. I am purchasing a practice that currently has about 550 very dated frames in stock. We want to improve frame board selection and are trying to decide which frame lines to carry. The area served is primarly blue collar and about 85% insurance. Age range is very mixed. We would also like information on how to determine the percentage of high, middle, and lower end frames to carry. We will also need frames for medicaid, which in FL pays very poorly.

Is it best to go primarily with one company such as Marchon, or Safilo? For moderate and lower end frames we have looked at Silver Dollar, and Modern Optical. For medicaid we have looked at Ce-Tru and Gallery.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

[varmint]

I have had excellent customer service from Charmant. Especially the titanium lines. I've had them replace broken frames 3-4 years old no questions asked!!! I've also always liked Tura, but our rep now sucks so I don't use much of their product. If you have a good rep, Tura offers some great help for your practice.
I don't care for silver & I have never used any modern, but Marchon is aways a good middle of the road line. I have done pretty good with the ce-tru w/insurance too.
Hopes this is useful.
Jim

[Judy Canty]

I would strongly suggest that you consider Silver Dollar. Great product, excellent quality and a no-fault warranty with reasonable prices. I use their childrens line for my medicaid patients because the warranty is 2 years-no questions.

[Texas Ranger]

mpowers, in purchasing another business, does it mean that you need to continue doing things like they were done before; i.e. is someone requiring you to handle medicaid? I wouldn't want to seel any client a frame that I wouldn't want to wear myself. If 85% of the deal is insurance, what's in it for you? does the insurance plans involved allow the clients to have a "decent" frame? In general, I believe that folks forget the circumstances of why they chose a particular frame, especially after something happens bad with it; they'll be griping about the junk they got and how it wasn't worth a flip, and be tellin all their circle of friends, relatives and co-workers where they got those bad glasses from; I'd rather just tell people that we'd rather not sell them something below our standards. and you can't imagine how much extra work that stuff can cause you when they constantly come back in for repairs, and warranty replacements, especially the medicaid ones. so, my question is, why bother? this is bad, and I can say that in our market, I know of no optical firm that will handle medicaid, and that is sad; but if a shop decided to handle it, medicaid might very well put them out of business, because they would be inundated with profitless work.

[CME4SPECS]

I think that if you have 550 dated frames on your board, that your first plan should be how to get rid of them. If you add new, fresh frames, without getting rid of the old ones...they will become even older. You might concider making all of them available for medicaid, or have a grand opening sale and unload them. Terry Agin