Glasses Deals Discussion

kondormid

The COST PRICE of a sight test in the UK is around £60.

I do agree though £20 is far far too low and is just not sustainable. The argument that I keep hearing from opticians is they feel underpaid on eye tests and so make up the short fall using big margins on glasses and feel justified doing it.

But the problem is they are just passing on their eyetest to people who should not be paying for the eye test in the first place. Take a pensioner for instance. They have had a free eyetest, and now they are being asked to subsidise the low eye test fee by paying the extra amount on glasses.

But why should a pensioner subsidise the eye test at all? It is not the pensioners fault that the industry can not get its act together and claim a bigger fee now is it?

The fact is the industry has a choice, it can get in to a fight with the government or they can put their feet up and let the pensioner pay up (some hope of that in the future)

And now that the customers are voting with their mouse clicks that they are no longer willing to carry on this charade of subsidising low eye test fees what are the opticians going to do?

You can count the days left of relying on pensioners and others that are "supposed" to be getting free eye tests but are not.

Time is running out. The balls in the opticians court, they can sit and moan or grow a back bone.

nedmundo

I agree with the sentiments of the above post. The problem that the Optometric Industry faces is a lack of 'clout' in negotiations with the government - e.g. what can we do about it - strike?
Also, if we did refuse to perform eye exams for such a low fee, there are always commercial entities such as supermarkets who would go against the tide in order to gain market share, even if it means subsidising it from grocery shopping, which is already happening.

bitemebankers

kondormid wrote: »

But the problem is they are just passing on their eyetest to people who should not be paying for the eye test in the first place. Take a pensioner for instance. They have had a free eyetest, and now they are being asked to subsidise the low eye test fee by paying the extra amount on glasses.

This isn't a great example to cite because pensioners on low incomes get a GOS3 voucher for free glasses too. It's only pensioners who are above a certain income threshold who have to pay anything at all. And if they can pay, why shouldn't they pay? The state benefits system is not there to support people who are capable of supporting themselves.

And now that the customers are voting with their mouse clicks that they are no longer willing to carry on this charade of subsidising low eye test fees what are the opticians going to do?

I don't imagine they're all that concerned, to be honest with you. Online specs are only really suitable for a certain proportion of spectacle wearers - i.e. those with lower prescriptions looking for single-vision (i.e not bifocal or varifocal lenses). There's also the limitation of not being able to (easily) try anything on. The upshot is that the online optics business has only grabbed a relatively small share of the market. Compared to the competition from Tesco, ASDA and Specsavers, high street opticians are really not that worried about the internet.

kondormid

It's only pensioners who are above a certain income threshold who have to pay anything at all. And if they can pay, why shouldn't they pay? The state benefits system is not there to support people who are capable of supporting themselves

My Mum is a pensioner, and has to pay for her glasses. She does not mind paying either. But her last pair from the high street was just over £300 for bifocals reactive lenses.

She has now got a pair from an internet company for £92. Actually less than that if you include the free pair. £200+ to cover extra eye test fees? This is some sort of joke surely.

Do you think she is ever going to the high street to buy glasses again? Do you think she feels she should pay extra for her free eye test?

Try telling her that internet specs are not for bifocal lenses, she likes a good laugh.

As for trying them on, this wasn't a problem and she fell in love with one set of frames because she had never had a pair that fitted so well in her life. Obviously she bought these ones and loves them. So again, make her laugh, tell the old girl she can not easily try specs before buyng them.

As for specsavers, Tesco and Asda opricians. We I am affraid this reminds me of the local small local bookstore. Who concentrated so hard on what Waterstones, Tesco and ASDA were doing he totally forgot to set up an online outlet and quickly saw his customers leave his shop empty forcing him to shut up shop.

Shops for specs? How quaint.

nedmundo

Kondormid - perhaps you should tell your mum to shop around a bit more. Transitions bifs are half that at my place and we are only a small independent with little buying power.

kondormid

nedmundo, If you sell Transision bifs for half of £92 I am very interested.

If you sell them for half of £300 though then obviously I am not interested at all, although those that insist on getting their specs from a high street retailer might be.

Have you independent guys done much to combine your buying power? I am sure you must have looked at it. Maybe you could get in touch with Martin and point out to him that you do trasistion bifs for less than the big shops?

I fear it is still only kicking the can down the road a bit, as eventually more and more people will move to online ordering.

There is an excellent book called "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell that in my opinion is very relevent to your industries future. Eventually something will happen that will speed up the move to online ordering of glasses. It is usually caused by some sort of maven that reveals something to a few people and the message spreads. In the days of social networking it is almost impossible to predict when it will happen. I am sure that you are aware that advertising is always looking to manipulate and encourage the tipping point but it rarely works the way a true movement does. Tipping points and their causes are hard to forcast, but you can see now that everything is in place and it is just a matter of time.

what your industry, small retailers, needs to do is create a movement towards themselves from the bigger chains and from the net. It is no use trying to ebb the flow away from you, like I said all you are doing is kicking the can down the road.

The instant reaction from your indistry seems to be "we offer better quality and service". I am pretty sure that no one moves to the internet for specs because of thoughts that the quality will be better though so this argument and reaction is null and void before they even point it out. Of course stories of good quality and service from online retailers counteract the point to some degree anyway but the stories are not really needed as they are moving online due to price.

Somehow you are going to have to sell your value, and i do not mean by telling people how much an eye test really costs.

On a side note. I see many of the online retailers offer affiliate codes. No doubt you have a customer from time to time that is insistant that they buy their glasses online. Do you have an affiliate code you can give them from these online retailers?

Obviously you would prefer them to buy from yourself, but the ones that insist they will not, why not make some affiliate money from them?

nedmundo

Kondormid - of course it's half of the £300. Even if all the Independents were to club together, they would still never get the same volume discounts as we all use different suppliers, which we choose on services, quality and value. I guess that's the advantage of being Independent.

You make some good points, but even if we were to achieve the bulk discounts of the multiples/online suppliers, we could never compete purely on price as the overheads of running a clinical practice with 1 on 1 qualified dispensing will always exceed the other models.

Fortunately for me, the online model isn't exactly setting the world alight. Most people still prefer seeing the product in the flesh 1st and having expert advice and service to ensure their glasses meet their needs. They also appreciate that best value does't always mean the cheapest.

I guess its horses for courses.

As a side note, my practice is moving towards increasing professional fees by adding services like OCT, which you won't find in any of the big boy practices.

bitemebankers

kondormid wrote: »

My Mum is a pensioner, and has to pay for her glasses. She does not mind paying either. But her last pair from the high street was just over £300 for bifocals reactive lenses.

She has now got a pair from an internet company for £92.

Good for her. What exactly is your point? Buying bifocals or varifocals online is still inadvisable, for the reasons I've given. That your mother received a pair of glasses she can use is fortunate for her, but does not negate the fact that many others have problems.

Another thing you're forgetting/ignoring is the fact that an optician has to cover the cost of all the sight tests that don't result in a dispensing too, as well as all the other costs of running a high street practice.

paris1

I bought the £19 voucher yesterday entitling me to £50 off sunglasses at sunglasses-shop-co-uk . In the MSE it said sunglasses-shop have assured MSE they wouldn't hike the prices for the duration of the voucher which is until July.
But unless i've missed something here they have! ...as the glasses MSE quotes as reduced ie Ray-Ban 2129 shiny blacks for £45 (were £75), Oakley Five Squared Polishe Black Glasses £37(were £68) are in fact the original price on sunglasses-shop website.

So what do I do? I either pay the extra or return the voucher I guess.

Your comments would be welcome:)

kondormid

Good for her. What exactly is your point? Buying bifocals or varifocals online is still inadvisable, for the reasons I've given. That your mother received a pair of glasses she can use is fortunate for her, but does not negate the fact that many others have problems. .

Who says it is inadvisable and where is the reason or examples?

Everything I can find about people ordering online bifocals from good online retailers seems to result in people being more than happy and I have seen no reason anywhere why people should not order them.