Twin Cities consumers score eyewear providers low for service

Constantly changing fashions means a constantly changing selection at eyewear outlets.

Today's glasses are lighter and available in more styles than ever. New contact lenses are more comfortable, and disposables require no maintenance. Despite these innovations, shopping for specs and contacts can be a hassle.

Twin Cities Consumers' Checkbook's surveys of thousands of local consumers found that many vision centers get very low scores for the advice their staff offers, promptness and other issues. And our undercover shopping indicates that many stores have prices that are way too high.

Dozens of stores received "superior" ratings for overall service quality by at least 80% of their surveyed customers, others got such favorable ratings from fewer than 50%. In general, chains and franchise operations were rated lower than independent firms, but there was variation among each type of outlet.

The lion's share of eyeglasses on the market — including those sold under popular designer brand names — come from just a few Italian companies with names you probably won't recognize: Luxottica, Marcolin, Safilo.

Luxottica not only manufactures millions of pairs of glasses annually; it also markets and sells them in more than 7,000 retail stores it runs. Though the name Luxottica doesn't show up on their signs, when you head into LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Target's optical department, Sunglass Hut and many more outlets, you're shopping in a space or store they own or control.

Luxottica owns several brands outright, including Ray-Ban and Persol. Other name-brand specs are created by the eyewear giants through licensing agreements. With only a few companies controlling both the manufacture and the distribution of most frames, it's tricky to figure out whether you're getting a good deal.

The way to assess value is to buy from a store that offers great advice — where you'll be told whether more expensive frames warrant their higher prices or that you'd do just as well with a lesser-known brand. Many independent retailers stock a wide variety of frames.

Some companies don't sell any Luxottica products. For example, Warby Parker offers $95 single-lens glasses in fashionable frames. It began as an internet-only business, but the company has opened more than 130 brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. and Canada.

Checkbook's undercover shoppers collected prices for 18 models of eyeglasses (with single-correction lenses) and found that some Twin Cities outlets charge twice as much as others. For example, for a pair of Coach HC6127U eyeglasses, prices at surveyed stores ranged from $294 to $659.

The best news: You don't have to pay more to get great advice and service. Checkbook's shoppers often found low prices at the highest-rated stores. Unfortunately, for eyeglasses, because stores don't sell the same products, it's impossible to compare prices among the largest chains for the exact same frames. But we found Costco, Walmart, and Warby Parker offer very low prices for the products they do carry.

Checkbook researchers also collected prices for six brands and models of contact lenses and found even larger store-to-store differences in prices and fees. For example, for a one-year supply of Biotrue ONEday daily disposable contact lenses (plus exam and fitting), prices ranged from $542 to $1,256. Among vision centers, Checkbook found that Costco, Kennedy Vision Health Center and Sam's Club offered the lowest prices for contacts.

You can save a lot by buying from some online-only retailers. Checkbook shopped for glasses and contacts at a sample of internet stores. For eyeglasses, prices at almost all the online retailers were substantially lower than at surveyed stores — several sites offered prices that were less than half of those offered by local stores. Online sellers not only tend to offer very low prices, but they also carry a much wider selection of frames.

As with eyeglasses, Checkbook found that online contact lens retailers were less expensive than local outfits — charging about 30% less than local brick-and-mortar retailers. But some well-known online sellers offered prices higher than the average found at the lowest-priced area outlets.

Twin Cities Consumers' Checkbook magazine and Checkbook.org is a nonprofit organization supported by consumers and takes no money from the service providers we evaluate. Star Tribune readers can access Checkbook's ratings of local eyewear retailers free until Feb. 5 at Checkbook.org/StarTribune/Eyewear.