Seeing clear to the New Year
So, I’m at a New Year’s Eve party earlier this week and an eye doctor friend of mine is blown away by my prescription eyeglasses.
It’s not the frame style or prescription that had him reeling. It was the price. I paid $8 for them at ZenniOptical.com.
He knows about the steep markup on glasses, but was at a loss to explain getting prescription glasses that cheap. I don’t pretend to know either, except I understand the lenses are made in China.
The total cost broke down as:
Frames and lenses: $8
Clip-on sun shade: $3.95
Shipping: $4.95
So, the whole cost was closer to $17. Still quite a bargain.
Two warnings, however. First, you have to get from your doctor — or measure for yourself — your PD, pupillary distance, which is basically the distance in millimeters between the centers of your eyeballs. PD is not typically written on a prescription. Second, you’ll have to adjust the frames to fit your ears and nose or get an optician to do it.
After blowing the eye doctor’s mind about the glasses, I didn’t have the heart to tell him the sport coat I was wearing at the party cost me $7.
