Prescription Eyewear: Are you paying too much?

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“We see the world, not as it is, but as we are."
Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Seeing the world starts with seeing clearly :)

Shout out to @forty-two for inspiring this post :)

It’s been years since I had an eye exam. I’m slightly near-sighted, and I’ve noticed recently that it’s become difficult for me to see presentations from the back row, and to identify street names from a fair distance. So, I got my eyes checked. You will be happy to know my eyes are healthy, I just need a new prescription, and new glasses.

Purchasing eyeglasses used to be a pretty straight-forward process; you most likely purchased glasses from the optometrist’s office where you had your exam. Whatever price they set, you paid. But not anymore! We have entered the golden age of prescription glasses purchasing.

With prescription specs in hand, you can shop at a plethora of low-cost eyeglass online stores. There are tons of options to take advantage of.

What about quality? Well, it turns out most frames are manufactured by the same company, both designer and no-name (see HuffPost’s take: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/luxottica-monopoly_us_57d98fd4e4b0fbd4b7bce1d3 ). I imagine that some of (most of?) the stuff you see online is just as good as what’s available at your optometrist’s office.

So what did I do? For my primary pair, I went with in-person service and purchased some Ray-Bans. They were reasonably priced (with insurance), and available same day. Convenience won out in this case. It also allowed me to obtain my PD (more on this later*), which is handy for future online ordering.

I opted to order prescription sunglasses from an online retailer as the cost-effective option. We’ll see how that turns out.

Have you shopped around for eyeglasses? What’s been your experience?

*PD = Pupillary Distance. It’s often not included with your prescription, and you need it to order online. This was surprisingly hard to get. My optometrist said they don’t measure it, and the store where I bought my glasses was reluctant to provide the specifics to me in a tangible form. In the end I took a photo of their computer screen with the details.

If you don’t know your PD there are ways to measure it yourself. Look it up online. :)

Thanks!