Why Should Glasses Cost More Than an iPhone? Two Entrepreneurs Explain Their Innovative Business Model
- Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:11pm by
Becket Adams
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Well, why do they? Glasses have been around for literally hundreds of years, and yet, in most cases, a pair of high-quality frames and lenses will cost more than a brand new iPhone.
This is what prompted the founders of the online store Warby Parker to go into business for themselves selling prescription glasses for a fraction of the normal cost.
Watch the Tech Crunch interview with Warby Parker founders David Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal:
“Having crafted their plan during business school, the foursome launched the company two years ago this month,” writes Josh Zelman of Tech Crunch.
During the Tech Crunch interview, Gilboa said that he couldn’t understand why “glasses cost more than an iPhone.” But after doing some research, he quickly discovered the reason: “a handful of companies“ controlled ”the entire supply chain.”
This raises some interesting questions: Do you sit around and complain that it’s not “fair” when so few control the supply chain? Or do you get in the game and create genuine competition?
The Warby Parker team chose the latter.
For instance, they decided to create their own brand of glasses so that they wouldn’t have to rely on the existing supply chain. This allows them to sell their product for well below the average price.
“However, because their product was only available online, the team had to figure out a way for customers to try on the frames,” Zelman writes.
This is where they got really creative.
The Warby Parker team created a “first of its kind” program where consumers could actually select 5 frames from the online store, have it shipped for free, and they get 5 days to try them out — with no obligation to buy.
When they were finally ready to “open” their online store (we’re not entirely sure how you “open” an online store, but you get our meaning), they were met with resounding success: the store sold out of its top 15 styles in only four weeks and hit its sales target for the entire year in less time than that (three weeks).
Oh yeah, since opening two years ago, the company has also expanded to 60 employees.
It’s always refreshing, especially with these tough economic times, to see that there are still some entrepreneurial individuals in the U.S. getting in the game as opposed to complaining about it.
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Comments (61)
Harryc123
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 3:00pmThere‘s a few more things I feel compelled to add to my precious post seeing that I’m in this industry. I am finding that there is a lot of misconceptions from people posting with regard to the optical industry as a whole.
Report Post »First off, I can tell you that there is no conspiracy in the optical business to keep prices high. That’s just laughable. Also, there isn’t just a couple of companies that produce frames and lenses, there are hundreds of both, so there isn’t a handful of companies controlling the market.
My father owned an optical shop for 25 years. The profit margin is ten cents on the dollar. I myself am a district manager in a major optical retailer ( not LensCrafters AKA optical Satan). My districts profit? Ten cents on the dollar. It’s hysterical. The wholesale cost of a $300 pair of glasses is under fifty bucks, but by the time we pay the overhead including salaries, rent, Obama, and in my case Dannel Maloy, we are left scratching our heads as to where the money went.
We offer glasses from $49 and up with an average sale of $118.
I am happy for the gentlemen who started an online eyeglass business, and I certainly hope they prosper. There is a definate market for a select number or people who don’t particularly care about looks or brands. The majority of customers in my neck of the woods are women however, and they would never buy glasses online, so the optical business is safe.
PropstotheGast
Posted on February 25, 2012 at 8:49pmThe selection at the website is very limited, and I did not see a pair I would wear from a looks basis unless I needed a pair of safety glasses.
I paid not much more than that at a retailer for a nice looking pair with fancy lenses.
I wish them luck, but the market seems to be people who think everything is cheaper and better on the internet.
Report Post »msswim.com
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 2:29pmBecause they didn’t go to http://www.zennioptical.com/
Starting at under $10
I don‘t wear glasses so I can’t vouch for quality, but hey, it’s $10
Report Post »Mooreopticallab
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 2:21pmGIVE US A TRY. mooreopticallab@gmail.com is a small optical lab. We have accounts with most frame company’s. Most high end frame companies will only sell to a lab or a eye doctor. Choose your frame we will purchase the frame, will sell the frame, and grind the blank for cost plus $50.00. Please email us or call and let us help you chose a frame and blanks. We provide over 150 types of lenses we provide a very personal and cost effective experience 831 8181644
Report Post »GlintoftheScythe
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 1:29pmWaffle House sell more steaks than any restaurant business in the country. But if I am in the mood for a steak I don’t go there. Is Ruths Chris an evil place that sells the exact same thing for many times the price? A steak is a steak, they are both pieces of meat why pay more? Pinto and Porsche, organic or chemical laden, junk food or health meals, is Mad Dog the same as any other red wine? Is one inherently evil or exploitative because it costs more?
Report Post »wigg
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 12:42pmOk. First of all, I am an optometrist. Second of all, I do not have a dispensary in my practice – I do not sell glasses. I write prescriptions for glasses. My practice is mostly medical.
1. There are literally THOUSANDs upon THOUSANDs of different prescriptions. YOUR prescription is not EXACTLY the same as anyone elses. These are CUSTOM made for you – Unlike the IPHONE.
2. The eyeglass industry is run by FASHION. We could all wear the old army“ birth control glasses” for pretty cheap.
3. Glasses are glasses right? Think about it like this – A car is a car, right? but there is a HUGE difference between a 1979 plymouth champ and a 2012 BMW. They are not the same.
Report Post »Don’t expect your $35.00 internet glasses to work the same as your $300.00 pair.
GlintoftheScythe
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 12:59pmSpot on doctor. I also have great admiration for you for not selling what you prescribe. You let the greatest potential profit for your practice walk out your door. I defy anyone to talk about selfish motives and greed among the independent practices like yours.
Report Post »weneedrubio
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 10:47amYou get what you pay fro and like Apple, and every other tech compnay, you are getting it from slave wage workers in other countries. Buy here and you get quality of product and service. I’d like to see what happens when you find out the lenses are wrong.
Report Post »Harryc123
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 8:44amI am a licenced Optician and would like to comment on this story from that point of view.
True, there are some companies that absolutely overcharge for their product. Lenscrafters comes to mind. Please remember folks, you get what you pay for. What you are not paying for when you buy glasses online is the quality of service and the newest technology. You are not getting an educated, licenced practitioner that understands the mechanics of the eye and its deseases.
When you pay $200.00 buck for a pair of glasses what you are really paying for is experience. Sure, there are overhead costs of brick and mortar stores that have to be accounted for. There is the salaries of those who have the knowlege to take precise measurements of you eyes and grind prescription lenses to the frame.
Cheap is just that. Cheap. And when they supply someone with glasses that have either poor quality or the wrong Rx they have to take the responsibility for the safety of that person. In my state the Optician takes on this responsiblity, and if you were to get into a car accident because your glasses were 2 degrees off axis then that optician is liable just like a doctor would be.
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 9:38amSure, sure. What you fail to mention is that people still have to go to the optometrist to get a prescription because most people don’t have the equipment and knowledge to self prescribe like you pointed out. We still need optometrists, however, not everyone buys their glasses from their optometrist. In fact, I’ve never bought a pair from my optometrist because they generally carry a crappy selection of frames. So my point is that my optometrist has never seen my glasses to check the script to make sure it is right.
This means that alot of your colleagues do not agree that it is their responsibility to ensure that the glasses that technicians grind and assemble is correct. This is already a responsibility of the consumer. If a consumer has a problem, then they may come to you to check and see if it is a wrong script. Usually though, the problem is not that the script of the glasses doesn’t match the lenses but that the script is wrong for a person.
I think you are just trying to keep the price of glasses higher because you see your livelihood and profession changing and it makes you uncomfortable. Well, it is and it should. But, market freedom is more important that your job security and if you expect to be a stagnant supplier, then you will fail. Service your customers in the best way you can and provide them with the best products for lowest price and you will succeed. But stop trying to limit your customer’s options or control them.
Report Post »GlintoftheScythe
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 12:49pmSGTB
People not taking the care to assure they got what the paid for are foolish. You should always know that the glasses or contacts you are wearing are what the doctor prescribed. Do you just take any bottle of pills the pharmacist has on hand no matter what the doctor writes and judge that if you didn’t die you got the right one?
Another of your many wrong points, most people who come back with glasses that do not work are because they were not made correctly. This is an endemic problem in the largest optical retailer in the US.
Your analogy of market freedom and livelihood is arrogant and paints with a brush wider than you can hold.
And as to options, you think limiting the sale total expands options? What math do you use?
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 2:38pm@ Glen, your analogies are moronic. First off, it is the job and responsibility of a pharmacist to ensure that you receive the correct medication. Obviously, not everyone can be an expert at pill identification or a chemist who is able to independently verify the drugs they are dispensed. Neither do people take their pills back to the prescribing doctor to verify that the correct pill was dispensed before they medicate. So your analogy is ruined because this online store is doing nothing different than what a normal eye glass manufacturer would do, nor are they acting in a way that is harmful to customers / patients.
On that same note, how do you not see that adding to the number of retailers increases the options a consumer has in a market? That takes some kind of crypto-calculus that only you must know. Whenever you add more suppliers to the market, consumer choice goes up. This is a fact and your rant saying otherwise only serves to let the rest of know how intelligent you really are. That whole, better to appear stupid than open your mouth and remove all doubt thing applies here.
Furthermore, from my own experience and the experience of my wife, I have never received a pair of glasses with a prescription other than what was ordered. I have received glasses where lenses poorly fit to their frame, but that is purely a cosmetic defect that a consumer can readily see and have fixed. But, I have been given a script so far off that I couldn’t even walk in them.
Report Post »GlintoftheScythe
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 10:32pmSGBT
How does producing ever cheaper glasses increase consumer options? The only option you increase is ever increasing places to find poor quality.
You are also misinformed with your challenge to being smart enough to know you are getting what you are paying for when you are totally ignorant of how to do it yourself. First your anticdotal experience with cheapest health care modalities has no bearing, not a shred of worth, as information that reflects the actual state of affair in the optical industry, second the majority of states have laws that require your eyewear and contact lenses to be dispensed by a licensed optician, kind of explains you not understanding the pharmacist apology. It is a felony in many of these states to dispense contact lenses without being licensed to do so.
So while you may not be moronic you are more ignorant than you realize and don’t want to begin to educate yourself to be better informed.
But only a moron, using your word, would concluded that because he and his wife experienced x or y that x or y is a truth. That’s just funny. By the way glasses and contact lenses are prescriptive medical products exactly as are the random pills you get from your pharmacy and are regulated to protect the stupid from themselves.
Report Post »modilly
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 8:36amThink eyeglasses are expensive and monopolized? Just try hearing aids. That’s a product that needs competition. It doesn’t follow the normal electronic learning curve of cheaper the longer that the product is in production. They just get more and more expensive. My last pair 6 years ago cost over $4000.00 and the new equivalent ones are now around $6000.00 a pair.
Report Post »TAXEVERYONE
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 9:34amI agree. There is no logical reason for this monopoly to continue to exist.
Report Post »Hopefully some new businesses will figure that out soon.
NoNannyState4me
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 11:06amThank Medicare and the great Gubbiment of the USA for that one, old feller. I understand your disgust with it, but the hearing aid thing is really a direct result of the FDR social doctrines.
Report Post »GlintoftheScythe
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 1:19pmYou did not buy those glasses from a monopoly company. And I’ve sold glasses that cost way more than four thousand and I would buy them if I could afford them. Sounds like we have the signs of class envy popping up its ugly head among the “conservative”
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 2:40pmMy guess on this topic would be that a large percentage of hearing aids are purchased under insurance plans or gov’t insurance plans. That said, insurance that covers basic necessities instead of real emergency care or costs destroys the market pricing system and leads to the high cost of all of your medical care needs.
Report Post »POdVet
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 6:34amPart of the reason glasses cost more at a real world store versus an online one is rather easy to explain. Lower overhead! An online store does not need to have 100′s of locations for customer convenience. If you only have to pay rent or buy one building rather than hundreds, of course you can undercut the competition. They are still charging $30 for frames made out of $0.20 worth of plastic and screws!
Report Post »Goldwaterite
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 5:18amJust bought a pair from them. It‘s good to see good ol’ American capitalism at work. Do the same service for a cheaper price. Their pitch hooked me.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 5:41amHooray for the FREE MARKET !!
Report Post »NoNannyState4me
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 11:10amTheir glasses are ugly as all get out. I love the free market, but seriously these glasses are awful looking on the design side.
Report Post »sillyfreshness
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 2:45amI remember when I was a kid growing up you got ripped off as the eye doctor all the time. You had to pay $200 for a pair of plastic frames because they all worked together in price fixing. Then in the 1990s Lens Crafters started the franchise model and had lower prices than your local eye doctor office. Since the 2000s and with the internet, more competition exists and now you can get frames for as little as $30. Now is certainly a better time to buy glasses than say, 30 years ago.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 3:32amHistorically… NOW… is always better than the PAST!
Report Post »Longview
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 1:20amThis is not a commercial but I have been buying my glasses online at zennioptical for the last 4 to 5 years. I usually buy the more “expensive” pair for about $35-$40. It’s so economical I can afford to keep extra glasses in both cars, work and home. They use polycarbonet lenses which aren’t as long lasting as glass lenses but they are good enough. It’s good to find out there is now an American company doing the same, assuming their product is from the USA.
Report Post »PJL
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 12:10amProblem is I tried to use my same frames for a new prescription and was told they would still charge me for new frames, whether I used them or not…what a Scam. So unless they can give you an eye exam and make you lenses it wont help much.
Report Post »salvawhoray
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 11:19pmI had laser eye surgery and never looked back.
Report Post »Quasimofo
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 11:49pmyou will in a few years.
Report Post »Mikev5
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 1:05amI had a guy try very hard to get me to do the eye surgery to the point I had to yell at him I DONT WANT THE SURGERY…GET IT so back off.
These guys push this surgery to everyone that comes in I still dont trust it maybe in 10 or 20 years when I know for sure its not going to trash my eyes as I get older but not till then.
Report Post »TheCoffinMaker
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:53pm…and these are the people that Obama and his welfare recipients want to pillage and rape.
Report Post »lionshield
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:53pmthey got it going on . I would buy some glasses from them.
Report Post »auntbea
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:30pmGood question. Does anyone know why frames cost so much? I can understand that my lenses are expensive, but why the frames??
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 12:11amUmm it’s explained in the story. There were only a few manufacturers that made them, and they were very likely colluding with each other to keep prices artificially high. This is the case in almost every instance where you see insanely high prices and can’t figure out a rational explanation for it. Gas prices for example.
Without real competitors that aren‘t colluding together the free market doesn’t work like it’s intended to. That’s why we have laws against just this sort of activity. They just haven’t been being enforced since about 1920.
Report Post »OlefromMN
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:18pmSaw the headline and immediately thought of the “Opti-Grab”.
Report Post »Parnell3rd
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:51pmDamn these glasses! Sir, I damn those glasses!
Report Post »p51d007
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:17pmHow can you buy a pair of glasses online, when depending on the frame, they may not sit the same on your nose & face than anyone else, which throws the “sweet spot” for the glasses off. That’s why they hold those goofy things in front of your eyes to measure where the center of the focal point of the lens should be, for YOUR face & eye. Buying without having someone do that, you could end up with a blurry pair of glasses, actually doing yourself MORE harm than the money you save.
Report Post »jimv2000
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:37pmBecause the “sweet spot” isn’t worth $500 to me.
Report Post »knobbysmoo
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:54pmWe have been buying glasses online for years now and have been very happy with them. Most are so cheap that you can buy multiple styles for a fraction of the price of brick and mortar stores.
Report Post »papasquaty
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 11:31pmIf you go to their website they say your eye doctor can do it or they will even pay for you to have it done at an optical place. Then you send the measurements into them.
Report Post »GlintoftheScythe
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:48pmThese guys tell only half the story. The totally ignore technology. There are 1100 progressive designs on the market, hundreds of anti reflective coatings, and dozens of materials that Cannot be selected by the consumer on line. Another fact they ignore is that eye glass frames are inflation adjusted the same as they were 20 years ago. Then there is the whole idea of a consumer fitting their own glasses and measuring their bifocal heights, which cannot be done with out the frame on their face. Nice try but just a gimmic.
Report Post »Mikev5
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:24pmYou are not thinking I do that now first go to Pearl vision get your eyes checked out and get the prescription now don’t buy the frames or lenses from Pearl vision. I do this all the time then I go to a discount online frame place for my frames and lenses this is the place but they are not as cheap as the early days I must admit.
http://www.framesdirect.com/
Report Post »Mikev5
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:32pmI forgot if you just walk into any place like Pearl vision they will adjust the frames for free or just go back to the place that did your prescription they will do it.
To try out any frame most places let you look at what they have in store and try them out so look try wright down the brand and model # go home find the same frame at http://www.framesdirect.com/
They are very helpful at picking the correct lenses for you by your prescription I call and talk to them on every pair I buy.
Report Post »Mikev5
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:44pmYou need to understand you frame size and stats that’s easy it should be on the frame in numbers like this 51 20 and your temples are on your ear pieces it should look like this 140 so your frame needs to be a ( 51 20 140 ) your eye spacing should be on your prescription.
http://www.framesdirect.com/ Will tell you what you need to know ask them before you go to get the new prescription/exam.
Report Post »tank79_83
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 11:07pmIf the consumer is smart enough to put up an eye chart and figure out their own perscription, they should be smart enough to figure out how to pick the correct size frame and pupil distance.(scarcasim off) If a consumer is not smart enough to figure out their own perscription, perhaps when they go to an Optometrist they could ask for the proper measurements. I’ve been buying my eyeglasses online for years. I recently had to get bifocals. To be honest, I was concerned about ordering bifocals online, so I ordered a pair from Costco. After getting that pair, I did order a pair on line and am very happy with them. By the way, the exam and glasses at Costco was just under $200
Report Post »GlintoftheScythe
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 12:15pmTo think that you can self diagnose, even just your refractive needs, is a demonstrations of ignorance that excludes you from even participating in the dialogue. Having on or two, even one hundred anecdotal stories of success, from people who cannot even demonstrate that their glasses were made to the doctors prescription, is far from remotely compelling. Ask the professionals who see hundreds a week, thousands a year, tens of thousands over a professional lifetime to get an opinion based in experience. This is as funny, in a tragic sense, as all the people who think they know best about contact lens wear and do not follow doctors directions only to present all indignant and mad when you explain it was their own actions that caused their plight. People not trained in a subject usually are dangerous to themselves and others.
Report Post »GlintoftheScythe
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 12:26pmmIKEv5
Report Post »You demonstrate what I mean by under informend. The measurements 54 – 18, or any other, DO NOT mean that any other frame that is 54 – 18 will fit the same. These numbers still do not take into account the other dimensions of the frame that are essential to proper fit and lens position. Nor will a temple of any length be as long as another temple marked the same in terms of it being the right length for you.
jimv2000
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:37pmI bought two pairs online from Zenni Optical for $15. They aren’t the highest quality frames, but for the price, who cares? The lenses are good.
Report Post »Clawdewd
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:16pmI’ve bought from Zenni for years, and have never been disappointed…recently got a new pair of prescription shooting glasses for $35!
Report Post »HoosierHunter
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:34pmGreat idea. Happy for them!
Report Post »JP4JOY
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:32pmI”ll have to try them. My last set of frames and lenses cost well over $600.
Report Post »Reeferman
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:31pmBeing one who wears glasses and the type of work I do I have two pairs all the time. Bought two pairs last year with progressive plastic lenses, tinted and were $850.00. About time someone brought a cheaper solution.
Report Post »dealer@678
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:29pmIts a trick. Dont fall for it. I found out the hard way
Report Post »Pelling1020
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 9:41pmWonder if they fit people with only one ear?
Report Post »Captain Crunch
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:38pmHow about a one eye one horn flying purple people eater?
Report Post »Dr Vel
Posted on February 23, 2012 at 10:41pmEither explain your point or do not demonize a company we know nothing about. Does the name dealer refer to your position in one of the few companies in the hijacking supply chain? After all I only spent $525 for 50 cents worth of metal and a bucks worth of glass polished to my focal length in a machine in mere minutes.
Report Post »