
Glasses can have a markup of 1k%. Former LensCrafters executives reveal why - onetimemanytime
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/3/6/18253555/eyeglasses-cost-lenscrafters-essilor-luxottica
======
yurishimo
My wife works for Essilor here in the states at one of their distribution
centers as an industrial engineer and the scope of how they operate is
mindblowing sometimes considering how much space they have.

In a building the size of a Costco, they have over a million SKUs of lenses
ans contacts.

I don’t really have much to add except for I agree the prices are a ripoff.
Luckily, I get a new pair for free once a year since my wife works there,
which is nice because I’m pretty hard on my glasses. We also have access to an
on-site optometrist and her pay is decent for our location and her experience.

Not much has changed since the merger except some corporate types coming
around doing inspections but from what I understand, Essilor and Luxottica
were about the same size before the merger, and now the have the benefit of a
larger supply and distribution chain for both companies.

I’m more surprised that the EU hasn’t broken them up, but maybe they will in
the next year or two.

~~~
savgeborn
I don't think EU will break them up.

See Volkswagen group.

EU already doesn't have economic boiler rooms like Google or FB, so they won't
go around breaking their own companies for a while untill it all changes.

