[Closed] Glasses, why so expensive?

.?????

Prescription charges are free, no? Then www.glassesdirect.co.uk

Do you require crazy strength varifocals?

You could have spent £20 each- so the answer to the question 'why are they so expensive?' is the same as the answer to the question 'why did you spend £300?'

🙂

What frames did you get? Did they have writing on the outside to reassure others of your brand loyalties?

You've paid for full retail and the cost of running a shop on the high street. You've probably also paid for a brand name and the associated advertising. It's good to get personal service by highly trained people, but that costs money. Some people need it too, if their prescription is odd, but lots of us can do with online for less.

@Moe long or short sighted ? I have a few back up pairs of reading glasses I got from Superdrug for £2.50 a pair. Glasses or short sightedness (ie you can't see well for things at a distance) are more expensive as lenses are more complex.

I've been complemented on my £1 poundland readers and had Gucci go largely ignored - The most savy consumer should shop for frames and lenses independently . The whole industry defo places an emphasis on style over substance - most frames fail at the hinges - pricey frames don't have better hinges .

They're not, just high street shop rents are very high. Buy online and they're about 25% the price.

I paid for an eye test at Boots, they take nice shots of the back of your eye now, cool. I need strong-ish -4 lenses but nothing for reading.
I then went to speckyfoureyes.co.uk for some no logo frameless specs for a good price.
Varifocal is a different story, bonkers prices.

My last lenses cost over £500, but then I have a -11.5 prescription which requires extremely accurate lens centre positioning, the lenses are the highest index bi-aspheric lenses available currently and have some cute mounting tricks to reduce their apparent thickness to others, I like going to a central London opticians and they make sure that I'm not inconvenienced due to my high prescription and other eye issues any more than is necessary.

I went for an eye test recently and discovered I needed reading glasses (wasn't much of a discovery to be fair I'd been putting it off for ages)

A friend recommended Vision Express for the eye test as they are really thorough. They were, no complaints very thorough and professional staff, would happily recommend.

The only frames they had I liked were £269 Oakley (natch) There was no way I was spending that on reading glasses

So I popped along to Boots and got a very similar style of frame for £89 instead.

Designer glasses are expensive. Other models are available

I pay about £300 every 3-4 years for my specs, the reason for the costs is not the frames but the high index lenses to stop milk bottle look from my -7.5 prescription. Once you've paid over £200 for the lenses I don't see the sense in paying £10 for a pair of cheap functional frames.

ah yes ... lense costs ... Every 3 years (just about !) but then i
cop for a +4.75 and +1.75 near addition. would be masses cheaper if
i ran 2 pairs but swapping glasses at 50kph to check the garmin is
not to be recommended 😉

Some high street opticians are complete rip off merchants. Big name high street opticians wanted £250 for my last set of lenses. Small independent optician 5 doors along wanted £100. These were for exactly the same lenses, made by the same well known lens maker in the same factory, delivered in the same time and fitted.

One of those things where shopping around really pays off. Get a prescription and don't necessarily get the glasses from the same place. If you have an easy prescription then online can work, or small local independent or mobile optometrist.

After years of listening to the main stream shops tell me they couldn't re-glaze my current glasses, & I need to buy news one... I've discovered a local independent optician, who have happily reglazed all my glasses, and so have had all of them done! Sunglasses an all.

It does annoy me that it is seemingly impossible to get spares for frames.

I have a pair of decent Police frames that would be perfectly usable except one hinge is completely knackered (thanks to a curious but clumsy toddler).

You'd think it would be easy to buy spare parts for such a major brand, but no. You can't even buy generic replacement parts (that I can find).

Asda £70.00 why pay more??

£600 ???? Should have gone to specsavers. I paid £125 for 2 designer pairs including frames. By one get one free.

As did I.

I bought an Oakley frame about 6 years ago I have had it reglazed 3 times the build quality is better and certainly the rubber nose pads easy to replace . I did not know they were Oakley's when I decided I liked them the assistant just got a few she thought would suit my face and got me to try them on really quickly rejecting those I didn't like on snap decisions . I did wince at the price but it is the frames I have liked the most in 40 years.

Thread title edit, "look at me everyone, I can afford to spend £600 on 2 pairs of specs even though £200 would have done"

It does annoy me that it is seemingly impossible to get spares for frames.

I have a pair of decent Police frames that would be perfectly usable except one hinge is completely knackered (thanks to a curious but clumsy toddler).

You'd think it would be easy to buy spare parts for such a major brand, but no. You can't even buy generic replacement parts (that I can find).

Just buy them online.

Mrs FD does it all the time. Boots / High street will be £400 etc online will be £150

£600 on two pairs? Sounds like a bargain.

(Dodgy prescription - can't read with my left eye after an injury - handmade Andy Wolf frames and a MILF optician. Why wouldn't I spend several £hundred every 3 years for items I wear for 18 hours a day?)

I just love the way folks weigh in with "could have got them for £xxx". Without knowing the requirements of the wearer you have no idea how much lenses are going to cost. If you can get away with 2 quid supermarket reading glasses think yourselves very lucky.

Like aP, I have a fairly (not ridiculously) extreme prescription. I don't want lenses which look or feel like they are made from the bottom of Newcastle Brown bottles. So I have to pay a lot. £600 a pop for my last few pairs. No fancy designer frames either. Don't tell me I could do better on line. I couldn't.

I knew it was a bad idea to post just before leaving for work!

I have only been wearing glasses for a few years but due to my job use varifocal, reactolites with antiglare coating. All I was actually querying was the manufacturing costs compared to retail cost, the mark up has to be huge, or am I missing something?

Afford £600? ... I have insurance, I'll get a fair bit back but hey if that's the way you like to judge people....

This is bl**dy fiddly on a phone!

You need new glasses

I paid about £350 for mine. My visits to the optometrist also include a really good check that there's nothing wrong with my eyes, I have to pay for that somehow. A pair of lenses lasts me 5 years, that's 20p a day for a (varifocal) lens that properly set up for me.

I also have an old pair of rimless varifocals that I use for cycling etc, and carry with me on kayak camping trip (I wear contacts on the water). About 8 years after I bought them, the screws holding the bridge pulled out of one lens. The optometrist I bought them from had retired and I took them to my new place - they sent them off to the makers for repair… no charge from either opticians or makers. So I think I get value for money.

a mate did some consultancy work for a big high street optician chain and said the markup on glasses was the biggest he'd come across.

You'd think competition would drive down prices but perhaps that hasn't happened yet?

a mate did some consultancy work for a big high street optician chain and said the markup on glasses was the biggest he'd come across.

i was trying to work out how my glasses were so cheap...

first: the eye test, £20.

how? i was there for at least an hour. I get paid a lot less than an optician, and my kit is less expensive, i charge £95/hour.

then, the glasses: £130 for the first pair, £50 for the 2nd (driving sunnies).

bargain.

(boots)

They must have seen you coming.

£600!

I rarely pay more than £50 at Specsavers. I don't go with the top designer stuff, but not the cheapest budget either.

That said I get discounts by being on a contacts subscription (about £5 a month for monthlies, and I buy the solution separate). The budget stuff is then free, the £100 stuff is half price etc.

Guess I'm also not fussy about the specs as mainly wear the contacts when out and about, and especially on bike rides.

Though weird prescriptions do whack up the price understandably.

The mark-up on anything sold in the high-street has to be high to pay for the rent of premium space. Same thing with Coffee shops etc.

£600!
I rarely pay more than £50 at Specsavers.
<SNIP>
Though weird prescriptions do whack up the price understandably.

One of my colleagues has been banging on for the last week or so how he's bought some new reading glasses from Poundland, and how I'm elitist, arrogant, "up-my-arse" and patronising because I have expensive ****y glasses.
Today, however, he's decided that actually they don't work and make his eyes hurt.

slowoldman - Member
Really?

Point was that the OP is staggered about the cost of glasses but I'm stating that glasses are generally very cheap.

This is why it's expensive... "varifocal, reactolites with antiglare coating"

Even then they don't have to be. Go for the top of the range varifocal and knocking on £200 lens, but cheap varifocal is a fraction of that. Antiglare coating is usually peanuts but you can pay for fancy. Reactolite is a premium though.

Though true expense comes from really awful vision but wanting to have ultra thin lenses, combined with varifocals. Then you're getting into £300+ territory even for non trendy glasses.

Moe - Member
I have only been wearing glasses for a few years but due to my job use varifocal, reactolites with antiglare coating.

If it's solely for your job you can try to get it covered through work or money towards it. That's on top of them paying for the eye test.

Though true expense comes from really awful vision but wanting to have [s]ultra thin[/s] [i]lighter weight[/i] lenses

.....although the frames are a smaller part of the cost, for a small amout of metal and plastic they must be more expensive than gold ounce for ounce?

There has only ever been one question, but thank you for all the other answers (and opinion) on the other stuff.

Easy done. My new glasses cost me over £300 the frames were just over £100. I need a very particular lens, the alternative is for me to wear something like milk bottles on my face, at 50% actual thickness my lenses are still 50mm thick. Thing is my corrected vision is razor sharp so I am happy to keep my optician at a well known big brand.

The Mrs spends about £450 on her glasses, i suggested a sharp tap to the back of the head with a piece of 4 by 2, might knock things back into focus, gotta be worth a try.
Not while she's wearing her new glasses, obviously.

my lenses are still 50mm thick

😯

I've got loads of pairs of sunglasses, and prescription glasses using either new frames, or sunglasses bought cheap and re-glazed, and I can't think of a single pair that could be rescued if the hinge got mangled...

Well it would be pretty trivial to swap out a hinge or even an entire leg on my glasses. It just attaches with a little bolt.

[img] [/img]

But they don't offer such spare parts because they'd much rather force you into buying new specs for the sake of a 10p hinge. 👿

When I used to wear LAeyeworks frames I'm certain that spares were available, after a frame cracked they couriered a new frame over to my opticians. My current theo frames have spares available as do my relatively new Mykita sunglasses.

got my last set from my local independent, Oakley frames for £150 all in.

I swear by Oakley frames, for both vision and shades

footflaps - Member

The mark-up on anything sold in the high-street has to be high to pay for the rent of premium space. Same thing with Coffee shops etc.

^^^ This and the cost of feeding the bureaucratic ZMs. 😯

does the high street theory stand up though? What if all high street sold products were proportionally retailed price wise as the constituent parts and manufacturing cost as Glasses [b][u]FRAMES[/u][/b] ( 😉 ) are?

Moe - I assume you don't buy t-shirts made in Bangladesh with the logo of a [insert fashion brand of choice] made for 6 or maybe 7 pence and sold for £45?

Horses for courses. I have a male colleague who's almost 60 and wears various poundland ones with animal print arms, another goes to a factory that has its own shop (in Atlas area of Sheffield) and swears by them for quality and value. I have a couple £25 pairs of specsavers ones. Perfect for getting muddy. I assume high end glasses are you expensive because they are very accurately made by someone that knows what they're doing.

I assume high end glasses are you expensive because they are very accurately made by someone that knows what they're doing.