I wanted to get a socially-distanced and virtual feel from the community about their stance towards the concept of discount frames and how they might diminish the high-luster polish of an optical shop.

Slap me silly and call me quixotic, but it's been my preference throughout my optical career to try to appeal to as many tastes and price points (within reason) as possible within whatever space I'm working with. Much like baseball scouting, I'm not going to rely purely on analytics or patient demand in what frames I buy - rather I try to use a nuanced approach that combines inspiration from both sources.

As such, a doctor from a neighboring city tried to poach me from my current post on the battlefield of optics. Whilst I left my rampart temporarily (it was after the new pikeman took my stead) to listen to the offer at his castle, I made an observation of his "discount rack" that had a couple Enhance brand frames. I noted that he had some New York Eye frames and he immediately retorted that it was a mistake that his clinic had those, and that he disliked even having a discount rack that hurt the appearance of his otherwise modern optical shoppe.

I get that his clinic is located in a pretty affluent area and that he has a fairly good selection of high-fashion frames, but is it such a disservice to a shop's supposed reputation for having *gasp* discount frames for patients that may not care about the lack of branding of a frame or want something utilitarian for a dedicated task? Or that positive word-of-mouth might make its way through the families of your area after your shop provided good service in helping a patient's nanna on a fixed income get a good but inexpensive pair of spectacles? If space isn't an issue (say, like keeping a couple trays of discount frames in a desk), wouldn't it be worthwhile to not lose a sale, especially when your sales volume is already pretty low?

Anyone else out there have an opinion on this apparently abhorrent topic?