Glassesdirect

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Glassesdirect, also known as Glasses Direct, is an online shop that supplies discount-priced spectacles.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Criticism 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Overview

In the UK a customer can go to an opticians (shop) on the high street and purchase a fixed price eye examination, from which the optician will issue a written prescription for corrective lenses^[1]. The customer is then free to get the prescription filled by purchasing glasses from any opticians, and not required to purchase from the opticians at which the eye test was conducted. All high street opticians (companies that include Specsavers, Dollond & Aitchison, Boots Opticians and Vision Express) both conduct eye examinations and manufacture glasses.

Glassesdirect offers to supply glasses manufactured to the written prescriptions provided by the high street opticians, but it does not offer any eye examination services. Glassesdirect (under its slogan "Specsensive? Don't get fleeced") asserts that it is both breaking a cartel in the manufacture and supply of glasses, and applying disintermediation, thereby removing the excess profits obtained by high street opticians. The resultant savings are then, in part, passed on to the consumer. The company's claims have received widespread media attention.^{[2] [3]}

However, an industry journal, Optician Magazine, has been quoted by The Mirror newspaper as saying

"If the demand is maintained and similar ventures spring up, it may have implications for spectacles and ultimately on the price of an eye examination. The ramifications for the profession could be enormous."^[4]

This implies a hidden cross-subsidy between the prices of eye examinations and glasses at high street opticians and, if true, the customer savings Glasses Direct anticipates may not be realised in the medium term, as the cost of the eye examination will increase. There have also been doubts raised about the utility and safety of glasses bought from the company.^[1]

[edit] Criticism

The safety issues concerning online spectacle buying include: the lack of pupil distance measurement (which centres the glasses for where the customer will be looking through) and the lack of an individual fitting frame. Both of these concerns can cause degraded vision and comfort. So far, no optometrist for any online spectacle company has publicly stated online spectacles are to the same quality as a real-world high street optician.

[edit] See also

• James Murray Wells

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} The man who found specs appeal on the web, The Observer, 27 March 2005
2. ^ Online optician is making high-street chains see red, The Sunday Times, 16 January 2005
3. ^ "That's Specs Appeal!", Irish Independent, 31 January 2005
4. ^ James Battles Rip-Off Spectacle Prices, Gary Jones, The Mirror, 13 January 2005

[edit] External links

• Glasses Direct website