The reason eye glasses cost so much is the multiple monopolies of Luxottica. Luxottica owns: (1) nearly all brand name frames including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Prada eyewear, Armani eyewear and so on, (2) nearly all retail stores such as LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical and Target Optical and (3) EyeMed, one of the largest vision insurance companies.
Also, VSP is the major vision insurance co. in the US (80M insured).
Perhaps the source of standard retail costs of prescriptions is the negotiation powers of insurance co.'s coupled with insured apathy ("it's not my money").
The dog ate my wife's $250 prescription lenses, so she wore her $40 backup pair from Zenni to her eye exam.
After a shitload of "oh, these aren't our lenses", they reluctantly put the glasses in their refractometer. The Zenni lenses matched the prescription perfectly.
I bought a pair of Zennis in 2013. I have a strong prescription and got maxed out UV, indexing, etc. on a (imo) good-looking frame. $75 for what would have cost me $300-400 out of pocket after my vision insurance credit. Additionally, I was able to submit the $75 as an out-of-network expense. It took some paperwork, but the return on my time was worthwhile.
I'm sure some people have had very good experience with zenni, but for what it's worth I gave up after 4 pairs (over about 3 years) that never quite had the right prescription. I had better luck with Warby Parker, but only have a single pair for comparison.
Warbyparker is a ripoff just like all the other middlemen claiming to disrupt an overpriced market. Zenni optical will get you a pair of frames with lenses for under $10. Everything else is paying for personal style preference.
Warbyparker couldn't get my prescription right, even after two remakes. My doctor showed me his prescription, and then showed me how Warbyparker dispensed the lenses. After giving WP two tries to make it right, I just gave up and spent $400 buying two pairs of glasses and a pair of sunglasses from my normal Optometrist (who told me that 'I'd be back' when I mentioned that I wanted to try Warbyparker).
>...and then showed me how Warbyparker dispensed the lenses.
Can you clarify this portion of your comment? I'm interested in hearing whatever insight he gave. I had a similar experience with WP, but I assumed it was due to my tough prescription.
I had a similar experience with Warby. Two attempts to get the prescription right, both sets of lenses were wrong. I don't have a strong prescription, nothing complicated.
Trying on frames at their brick and mortar helped my decision making a lot. Every time I have to pick out frames, only a handful looks decent on my face out of more than a thousand.
Did Zenni and 39dollarglasses before. Prescription is okay, but some of the frames came crooked and chipped easily.
Luxottica also wholesales their frames to independent retailers -- so even if you're not buying the frames at their stores, or buying their sunglasses at Sunglass Hut, you're still paying for their product. They're also quite aggressive about suing the knockoff Rayban and Oakley retailers -- or so I've heard.
If you're travelling overseas, depending in where you are going and what insurance you have, you can save a lot of money on things like eyewear, contact lenses; as well as things like perscription meds and routine dental work.
Non-Luxopoly choices FTW:
https://madeeyewear.com
https://www.warbyparker.com
Also, VSP is the major vision insurance co. in the US (80M insured).
Perhaps the source of standard retail costs of prescriptions is the negotiation powers of insurance co.'s coupled with insured apathy ("it's not my money").