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Comment by zdragnar | Hacker News Reader

They likely had lenses already available for the frames they had in stock, or were frequently making batches of them.

OTOH the frames you already owned may be out of style, so they would have needed to grind a totally custom pair of lenses, just for you.

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This doesn't work as an explanation, lenses are always cut to the frame.

My brother in law owned a lens cutting shop and they have boxes filled with lenses ground to all sorts of prescriptions that are circular plugs 3 or 4 inches in diameter. When the order comes in they use the pupil measurements and the frames to cut the lenses for the prescription down to fit into the frame.

I don't know how well I explained that but you can watch this video to see exactly how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCjGNUPO0WU

Thanks for this explanation - makes complete sense but never thought about it!

Nah. Outside of the vision cartel you can get replacement lenses for any pair of frames < $100, with all the various coatings and special shit for low hundreds. Likewise, using insurance to just replace the lenses, if a plan includes that, is often $50 or less. It's just shopping at the vision cartel without insurance = huge sticker price.

Any tips for how to stay "outside the vision cartel"? (In the US, if that is relevant...)

zenni optical. I mostly use contacts, but I have several 'backup' glasses. You can get decent looks frame for like $11 shipped.

Yeah; that won't work for replacing lenses in existing frames, but for a new pair it's what I do. $50-60 and I've got my prescription in a frame I like with all the coatings.

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