Optician here. You're all getting screwed. Luxottica makes medium-grade products that we charge more for because of the name on the side. A $300 pair is easily $80-$100 wholesale. Prescription lenses are even worse, sometimes with a 90% markup.
To be clear, there are some products that are expensive for good reasons. But luxottica makes a lot of junk. So does Bvlgari, Tiffany, Persol, and all their lame brand names.
I'm going to give you some tidbits I've learned:
- Never buy spring hinges. The fit sucks and they are always the first thing to break.
- If your lenses scratch then odds are that you're not cleaning them correctly. You're probably just moving gunk from one part of the lens to another. Hard stuff gets caught up in the gunk and scratches the lenses when you try to clean it again.
- Never buy polycarbonate. It scratches easily and has poor optics. Plastic (CR39) is fine. It's not shatter resistant, but if you're not wearing them while practicing MMA then you'll be OK. If you need shatter resistance then get trivex. (Kids should have poly though).
- Want rimless glasses? Cool. Stay away from silhouettes and swissflex. They are ill-fitting dog crap.
- Have a high RX? Never go to a chain store. Odds are, you'll pay a lot of money for a jacked up pair of glasses. They hire people based on sales, not knowledge.
- In the US you cannot be charged for a copy of your RX.
- Always visit twice to make sure you like a pair. Good opticians will want to make sure you're happy.
- Polarized lenses are an amazing piece of technology. But you still like the tinted look, huh? Ask for a polarized "a" lens so that you can get it tinted.
- If you have single vision lenses, don't let anybody charge you more for "digital" lenses. They're not noticeably better.
- Transition lenses are garbage.
- Maui Jim is awesome.
- 1.74 lenses are not much thinner for the price and they are much more brittle than 1.67. If you can find a place that sells 1.70 (Hoya product) then go with that.
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