Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Eyeglasses in Australia are hugely over priced

A recent podcast from Freakonomics titled Why do your Eyeglasses cost $1,000? explains the EssilorLuxottica monopoly we face here in Australia as well as the US.  Their markups are described by one analyst as "obscene". They mention Warby Parker as a possible monopoly breaker but sadly they don't seem to have come to Australia.

My prescription is relatively complex with astigmatism and I've paid $800 for progressive lenses and $300 for computer distance reading glasses.

Despite efforts by eye testers I've been able to get a copy of my prescription and recently ordered some new reading glasses from Zenottic in China for $55 (plus $10 shipping). They are perfect and the frames seem as good as any in the local shops.

I think it's a scandal that we pay 5 times the price, or more, to buy locally. It does take some care to get the prescription down correctly as well as inter-ocular distance but once I got it right I'm able to cheaply get additional pairs.

Note that EssilorLuxottica owns Sunglass Hut, OPSM, Oakley, Ray-Ban, LensCrafters and many more.

3 comments:

  1. Absolutely scandalous pricing. Actually, criminal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is that 1000 Australian dollars? Well, that's cheap. I just payed €950 for just glasses, and this are not even the most expensive. Equivalent in Australian dollars is approx 1550. You see, we don't even know the company you mentioned here in the Netherlands. But is seems to be even worse here. 73, Bas

    ReplyDelete
  3. The podcast is US based so US$. I think it's a global cartel.

    ReplyDelete