Looking for discount frames, discount lenses

[Chuck L]

I'm starting a new mail-order eye-wear company for people in prisons and jails. Looking for wholesalers for frames between (wholesale prices removed as per forum rules) wholesale. Ideally would like to purchase a variety at once rather than multiples of the same piece. Chinese suppliers welcome. Also looking for a wholesale optical lab to do the lens work. Will be mostly single vision and bifocal, some progressive. The most important thing is price, I don't need free-form or any bells and whistles.

Also looking for overstocks, discontinued, etc. Please contact me if you have any suggestions of who to contact or places to look into.

Thanks much!

Chuck

[Steve Machol]

Welcome to OptiBoard Chuck. Please note that the posting of wholesale prices is not allowed in forums that can be viewed by consumers.

[drk]

Bad idea. Mail order glasses with the ability to be taken apart and turned into lethal weapons.

Just ask an optician how many times they've been cut.

[Tallboy]

Yeah prison glasses need to have no parts that can be made into weapons. Many jails have different standards.

[drk]

How would mail-order work? Like the prisoners can order glasses themselves?

Why not order some hacksaws while they're at it?

I would think that prisoners would be relatively poor and would take advantage of the jailhouse provider.

This smells fishy.

[DanLiv]

Criss Optical makes (or made, couldn't find their website, though the frames are for sale on many online retailers) frames that are all nylon and metal free (except maybe the hinge), designed primarily for military safety but good for prison too. There's got to be something, prisoners gotta see too.

[Chuck L]

Nice to see you all have preconceived notions about prisoners. Actually, most states allow inmates to order their own eyewear, and guys who wear glasses use them to read, like everybody else. You've all watched too many movies.

Anyways, I am looking for any advice on Chinese suppliers and labs, unless someone knows of a domestic lab. How can America's Best offer 2 for $60.00 and still make a profit? What's their secret?

[Chris Ryser]

Anyways, I am looking for any advice on Chinese suppliers and labs, unless someone knows of a domestic lab. How can America's Best offer 2 for $60.00 and still make a profit? What's their secret?

Contact frame wholesalers and ask for discontinued lines which they usually sell at a fraction of the price they got when they were in the standard collection.

Do not ask for warranties and free exchanges, only final sales, and you will be ahead of the game.

If you are interested in China made frames go on Alibaba and you will find more than you want. Just look for the ones that do not want huge quantity orders. You might have to pay a bit more for smaller orders.

See them at:https://www.alibaba.com/trade/search...+frame+optical

[Tallboy]

Nice to see you all have preconceived notions about prisoners. Actually, most states allow inmates to order their own eyewear, and guys who wear glasses use them to read, like everybody else. You've all watched too many movies.

In any maximum security prison the eyeglasses worn by inmates are under strict guidlines. I know this. I have made them before about 6 years ago.

My preconcieved notions of prisoners begins and ends with the fact that they are in prison and are subject to its rules. Thats about all I'll say when it comes to knowledge of prisoners (I want my lawyer)

[Quince]

Nice to see you all have preconceived notions about prisoners. Actually, most states allow inmates to order their own eyewear, and guys who wear glasses use them to read, like everybody else. You've all watched too many movies.

Anyways, I am looking for any advice on Chinese suppliers and labs, unless someone knows of a domestic lab. How can America's Best offer 2 for $60.00 and still make a profit? What's their secret?

I was going to say the same thing. Was surprised and a little disappointed at the turn this thread took.

Back to point- New York Eye, Avalon, and I-deal Optics would be my suggestions for a place to start for frames. Good luck!

[Tallboy]

I don't understand why me questioning if he's thought this through all the way is a bad turn for the thread. Glasses being "shiv shy" is a requirement in many if not most prisons.


For stuff cheap enough that prisoners themselves could afford them I would skip the middleman and go direct to to the manufacturers. Go on AliBaba.com and find a factory, cultivate a relationship to get frames. Get the dirt cheapest deal on bulk poly lenses you can - unbranded and bulk. It will take a lot of jobs to recoup the cost of an edger and lensmeter as well. You are competing with inhouse providers who make the glasses for like 5 dollars to the prisoner.

If they have money being put on their account from someone outside that person most likely will be the one to buy them glasses and send them to the prisoner. So your client base is really the prisoners who only have the money they earn - which isn't much. You will be competing with the in house providers

[Chris Ryser]

I.

If they have money being put on their account from someone outside that person most likely will be the one to buy them glasses and send them to the prisoner. So your client base is really the prisoners who only have the money they earn - which isn't much. You will be competing with the in house providers

That looks like the perfect and most logic answer to the original question.

[ajonesgirl]

I have a small optical shop that makes glasses for our local jail. I'm contacted by someone from the jail, who then brings the inmate in for eyeglass selection. Then one of the family members will come in and pay for the glasses (before we order them, of course.) The family member usually comes back to pick up the glasses and then take them to the inmate. This is a local jail, so I imagine prison might run a bit differently. New York Eye carries "correctional" frames that have no metal temple in the temple, but I'm not sure on the pricing on them. The jail allows the prisoners to wear standard zyl frames.