Recycling Eyeglasses Is a Waste of Money

Re:Recycling Eyeglasses Is a Waste of Money by Animats on Saturday July 02, 2016 @10:40PM (#12024614)

There are several competing efforts to produce low-cost eyeglasses. Focus On Vision has adjustable eyeglasses.[1] Project Congo has some kind of eyeglass-making kit.[2] Briefcase-sized eyeglass kits used to be popular in India. They contained round frames and several hundred round lenses. The idea is that glasses have three parameters - spherical curvature, elliptical curvature, and axis of the ellipse. The usual options for the first two are only about 100-200 lenses. With a round lens, you can set the axis in any direction. There's a little notching tool in the kit, and once you have the axis set, the plastic lens is notched, then snapped into the frame, where it locks.

Not that they really cost much. The manufacturing cost of eyeglasses is about $2. The insane price of frames comes from a monopoly by Luxottica, which owns most of the retail outlets in malls in the US.

[1] http://www.focus-on-vision.org/ [2] http://projectcongo.org/photocollections/eyeglassmaking.html

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Re:Recycling Eyeglasses Is a Waste of Money by gnicholas on Sunday July 03, 2016 @12:08AM (#12024779)

There's also One Dollar Glasses: http://www.onedollarglasses.org/

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Re:Recycling Eyeglasses Is a Waste of Money by pasbesoin on Sunday July 03, 2016 @07:06PM (#12028039)

"Sticker shock: Why are glasses so expensive? 60 Minutes Luxottica"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfxERwUFZHc

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Re:Recycling Eyeglasses Is a Waste of Money by dkksfj on Sunday July 03, 2016 @02:24AM (#12025019)

>The insane price of frames comes from a monopoly by Luxottica, which owns most of the retail outlets in malls in the US.

How is owning most of the retail outlets in malls a monopoly?

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Re:Recycling Eyeglasses Is a Waste of Money by jamestnz on Sunday July 03, 2016 @02:45AM (#12025055)

I'm not sure about the monopoly accusation, but Luxottica's influence extends far beyond the US, and is not just retail. The company owns over 7000 retail outlets across North and South America, Asia-Pacific, China, South Africa and the Middle East, under well-known retail brands such as Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters, OPSM and others.

Moreover, Luxottica are vertically-integrated, controlling design, manufacture and distribution of many major brands in both prescription and fashion eyewear. Their in-house brands include Arnette, Oakley, Oliver Peoples, Persol, Ray-Ban, Vogue and others. Additionally they manufacture product under license for many more, like Brooks Brothers, Chanel, D&G, DKNY, Ralph Lauren, Prada, Tiffany and Versace.

So, monopoly or not, it's fair to say that Luxottica exerts considerable control over the worldwide eyewear market!

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Re:Recycling Eyeglasses Is a Waste of Money by threatofrain on Sunday July 03, 2016 @06:13AM (#12025481)

Luxottica owns many things, but the most important thing any company can own are distribution channels. Then you can just refuse to sell your competitor's goods.

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Re:Recycling Eyeglasses Is a Waste of Money by Animats on Sunday July 03, 2016 @03:21PM (#12027255)

That's how they took over Oakley. They cut off their distribution channels. Luxottica took over Sunglass Hut and pushed out Oakley. Oakley had to sell out to Luxottica. Then the prices for Oakley went way up.

Luxottica did something similar with Ray-Ban. Their products used to sell for around $19 in gas stations. After the Luxottica takeover, they became a "luxury" brand, with prices from $129 to $300.

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Re:Recycling Eyeglasses Is a Waste of Money by josephpmay on Sunday July 03, 2016 @02:27AM (#12025023)

They also manufacture almost all of the major glasses frame brands. They don't have a complete monopoly, but they do control a vast majority of the market.

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