They know you hate the brands that advertise everywhere. The thing is: ads aren’t only for the brand that’s being advertised. They’re for the entire product category.
The advertised brand and 17 others are all subsidiaries of the same company.
Sick of Milwaukee drill ads, so you stick it to them and buy the cheaper Ryobi or Rigid? They’re all the same company.
Eyewear? Luxoticca is a monopoly that owns almost every optometrist’s office and just about every company making eyewear, so all the competing brands when you’re buying glasses are an illusion. RayBan, Oakley, and all the others are all the same company wearing different nametags. Budget brands, premium brands - everything.
My favorite weird one is Johnson Outdoors. If you do outdoor adventuring, they’re probably part of your life.
Want to go scuba diving? They own ScubaPro, Sealife, Uwatec, and Subgear, and manufacture stuff for other brands like Cressi and Halcyon.
Fishing? They own Minn Kota, Hummingbird, Ocean Kayak, and Old Town Canoes, and Cannon.
Camping? They own Eureka (major tent manufacturer) and JetBoil.
I teach underwater photography for a local university through a dive shop and used to manage the camping, fishing, and marine departments at a major outdoors chain. One of their reps said I might have been the only person in the country who sold all their products.
As someone that has experience in the eyewear business; Luxotica owns target optical, Pearle Vision, LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Oliver Peoples, Glasses.com, EyeBuyDirect, Rayban, and oakley. VSP, which is a vision insurance company, now owns visionworks and Eyemart Express. (Fun fact, HVHC used to own Davis Vision, a vision insurance company, and lauched visionworks to launder insurance payments back into company coffers at the expense of private providers in the Davis Vision network. HVHC sold Davis Vision, and then a few years later sold visionworks.)
If you want eyecare that isn’t connected to a large conglomerate, find a small, private/local provider. Find out which ophthalmologists are in network with your medical insurance. The glaucoma screening and dilation/fundus photos can be billed to your medical insurance and you can pay out-of pocket for the refraction. The refraction is the part of the eye exam that gives you the eyeglass prescription. Everything else checks on the medical health of your eye, which is why it’s billable to the medical coverage.
For anyone looking for cheap glasses, brick and mortar retailers like walmart, sams club, BJs, have the least mark up on frames. You can probably find cheap frames online too. If you find and buy your own frames, you can bring them to your retailer/eye DR to have them make the lenses for the frame. The least expensive types of lenses are standard plastic, followed by polycarbonate. If you have simple correction needs, and your DR is telling you that hi-index lenses, blue-blocker, anti-glare, or progressive lenses are medically necessary, your provider is straight up lying to you to sell you more shit.
They know you hate the brands that advertise everywhere. The thing is: ads aren’t only for the brand that’s being advertised. They’re for the entire product category.
The advertised brand and 17 others are all subsidiaries of the same company.
Sick of Milwaukee drill ads, so you stick it to them and buy the cheaper Ryobi or Rigid? They’re all the same company.
Eyewear? Luxoticca is a monopoly that owns almost every optometrist’s office and just about every company making eyewear, so all the competing brands when you’re buying glasses are an illusion. RayBan, Oakley, and all the others are all the same company wearing different nametags. Budget brands, premium brands - everything.
My favorite weird one is Johnson Outdoors. If you do outdoor adventuring, they’re probably part of your life.
Want to go scuba diving? They own ScubaPro, Sealife, Uwatec, and Subgear, and manufacture stuff for other brands like Cressi and Halcyon.
Fishing? They own Minn Kota, Hummingbird, Ocean Kayak, and Old Town Canoes, and Cannon.
Camping? They own Eureka (major tent manufacturer) and JetBoil.
I teach underwater photography for a local university through a dive shop and used to manage the camping, fishing, and marine departments at a major outdoors chain. One of their reps said I might have been the only person in the country who sold all their products.
As someone that has experience in the eyewear business; Luxotica owns target optical, Pearle Vision, LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Oliver Peoples, Glasses.com, EyeBuyDirect, Rayban, and oakley. VSP, which is a vision insurance company, now owns visionworks and Eyemart Express. (Fun fact, HVHC used to own Davis Vision, a vision insurance company, and lauched visionworks to launder insurance payments back into company coffers at the expense of private providers in the Davis Vision network. HVHC sold Davis Vision, and then a few years later sold visionworks.)
If you want eyecare that isn’t connected to a large conglomerate, find a small, private/local provider. Find out which ophthalmologists are in network with your medical insurance. The glaucoma screening and dilation/fundus photos can be billed to your medical insurance and you can pay out-of pocket for the refraction. The refraction is the part of the eye exam that gives you the eyeglass prescription. Everything else checks on the medical health of your eye, which is why it’s billable to the medical coverage.
For anyone looking for cheap glasses, brick and mortar retailers like walmart, sams club, BJs, have the least mark up on frames. You can probably find cheap frames online too. If you find and buy your own frames, you can bring them to your retailer/eye DR to have them make the lenses for the frame. The least expensive types of lenses are standard plastic, followed by polycarbonate. If you have simple correction needs, and your DR is telling you that hi-index lenses, blue-blocker, anti-glare, or progressive lenses are medically necessary, your provider is straight up lying to you to sell you more shit.