Why can't a new company simply undercut the competition? I don't imagine the barriers to entry are too high for manufacturing glasses, are they?
They can and they do [1]. They just don't have the same marketing budget, so you don't hear as much about them.
All BS, and when I asked if they'd fill a prescription for lenses for my VR unit instead of ordering them online, they stared at me like I had grown a third arm.
I hate hate hate EssilorLuxxotica.
BTW, the app is called PD Measure.
He's also absolutely dogmatic and dismissive about how LASIK is safe (although he didn't push it for me).
He did give me my PD, though.
Physicians do have to ask about vaccines and document the answer in order meet meaningful use requirements. Maybe this is what you experienced?
LASIK is safe, but when there are complications they're a big deal.
What matters to others is you showing up at the dentist exhibiting symptoms.
EDIT: also re corneal disease unless the treatment is a contact lens go to an ophthalmologist for that one too
It's called a PD Ruler and it's literally just a mm ruler. Bald-faced liar indeed.
The glasses I got from my optometrist are much better, at 3X - 4X the price of Zenni.
Sometimes employers will even pay part of the vision insurance premium, thus making it, so your choices are to leave that money on the table OR pay completely out of pocket post-tax dollars.
There are alternative ways to use pretax dollars on eyeware, but many people aren't familiar with them and they require some management.
It's entirely a racket; would be like selling oil change insurance.
The “insurance” company presents a higher barrier, since it is basically the government handing a discount to people for buying via employer subsidized vision “insurance”. The discount is that this benefit can be paid with pre tax dollars, so it obfuscates the real prices when people with vision insurance shop for eyewear.
I put “insurance” in quotes because the annual benefit maximums, like dental “insurance”, are so low that the premiums are simply prepaying for routine exams/eyeglasses. In effect, employer subsidized dental/vision insurance is just an advantage for large employers who can afford to administer those benefits and the employees who are lucky enough to work at those kinds of employers get to pay for routine dental/vision with pre tax dollars.
I started buying cheap 4 years ago, and surprisingly the frame is still doing well (brand frames usually last 2-3 years)
Compare that to current RayBans. Cheap plastic. Plastic lenses. Spring hinges that break quickly and don't last. And worst of all, branding everywhere. On the temple. And again on the lens. Terrible.
But there isn't an open market for manufactured lenses, you have to get them into consumers hands, and you have to get prescriptions, and people want fitting and ability to try frames.
Superficially it seems that glasses are highly vertical in practice, which is why budget outfits like zenni and warby parker seem mostly to be focused on the margins of direct-to-consumer.
I tried buying glasses online and discovered another problem: the industry hasn't standardized on measurements. It's very difficult to buy frames online. The numbers/measurements will be, for example, for lens width and nose bridge width only — go figure how large the entire frame is. I tried, and failed, accepting that I pretty much need to visit a store.