Eventually, it will all cave in IMO.

Last edited Sun Mar 24, 2019, 06:53 AM - Edit history (1)

Man to man is so unjust

a vast universe. You would think mankind would be far more receptive to each other.

to hate

Last edited Sat Mar 23, 2019, 07:02 PM - Edit history (1)

...their hands on Lenscrafters, which was owned by the same parent company. I was working at Casual Corner at the time, awaiting the pediatric office that was going to be smart enough to realize they needed a peds nurse practitioner. (It took 2 years.)

Casual Corner carried high quality, well made clothes, in nice fabrics like silk, and wool gabardine. Luxxotica closed all the CC stores shortly after the purchase. They were not interested in the clothing end of things - just the glasses.

It was a good store, and I was sad to see it go.

Casual Corner helped build my work wardrobe, Maryland's Landover Mall store in particular.

...my husband was stationed at Andrews AFB.

I don't think there is a store, currently, comparable to what Casual Corner used to be.

We lived a bit north off of 301. It's sad to have seen these wonderful stores in their "glory" then watch them decline and go out of business.

Causal Corner and it was spun off into a new separate company.

That standalone operated for 10 years (and actually expanded the chain) before they sold it off to a liquidator, 10 years later, in 2005, due to increased retail competition. The liquidator, Gordon Brothers Group, a Boston-based company, then closed down Casual Corner permanently.


Luxottica to Acquire U.S. Shoe for $1.4 Billion
By JOHN TAGLIABUEAPRIL 18, 1995

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/18/business/luxottica-to-acquire-us-shoe-for-1.4-billion.html



LUXOTTICA SELLS APPAREL GROUP IN ENFIELD TO CASUAL CORNER

Luxottica Group S.p.A. has sold the Enfield-based Women's Specialty Retailing Group just five months after buying it from the former U.S. Shoe Corp.

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1995-10-05-9510050003-story.html




Casual Corner closing all 525 stores
Posted 11/23/2005 4:54 PM

https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2005-11-23-casual-corner_x.htm

ENFIELD, Conn. (AP) — Casual Corner Group will close or sell all 525 of its stores in 42 states and Puerto Rico, the company announced Wednesday.




https://web.archive.org/web/20121105101637/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1419403.html

After wearing my others for the past 10 years ... just the frames and the prescription ... not the exam ... $450

🤦🏽?♀️

Much stronger antitrust laws probably should have been enacted 40-50 years ago--before Reagan and Republicans made the world believe that Greed is God.

administration.

https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/antitrust-laws

Anti-Trust laws almost non-existent today.

Congress people need to be hauled onto the carpet if they are heavily invested in the stock market. Huge conflicts of interest both sides sadly. I'm NOT a both sider!

This is the greed/fear issue. Because we don't have sane policies to house, feed, and give comfort to older people, single people, widows& orphans, everyone is hoarding money so they and their families 10 degrees to the future generations never have to suffer. FUBAR

If the USA had a sane policies of enlightened nurturing care for the elders, widows, & orphans greed would have a harder time owning peoples souls.

Lack of Anti-Trust enforcement creates Unbridled Greed. Only laws can keep greed within socially responsible boundaries.


Read
https://www.wired.com/story/tim-wu-says-us-must-enforce-antitrust-laws/

all we could do would be to ban their products.

Antitrust laws could presumably deny/regulate access to U.S. markets by foreign companies deemed to be monopolistic. The EU just fined Google $1.7 billion for "'abusive practices' in online advertising, saying the search and advertising giant broke the EU's antitrust rules and abused its market dominance"

http://www.npr.org/2019/03/20/705106450/eu-fines-google-1-7-billion-over-abusive-online-ad-strategies

Big Box stores killed competition. Unless and until the laws topple this trend, we will be like The USSR, with only absemblance of choice operating freely via price fixing.

We are SITTING DUCKS!

Same with rental housing. Price fixed blatantly

SITTING DUCKS

So tired of the lack of political pushback to help,the average citizen.

SITTING DICKS

system is eligible for a free eye exam and two free pairs of glasses. Got mine last year.

If your doctor also does the frames/lenses they may have some styles that are set aside as low cost for a few hundred dollars less. This is what I discovered when I needed a new frame and told them I was on a budget due to rising health care costs. It doesn't hurt to ask.

There are a few misses, but most are "hits" in looks prescription and they've all been less than $100 per pair, generally less than $50.

I use Eyebuydirect.com. I got a set of regular and a set of prescription sunglasses last year for under $100, work great. Just need to know your prescription numbers.

They had frames for $75 that my Eye doctor's office wanted $300 for.

We get the prescription from our ophthalmologist, then go to Costco. I get the best quality progressive, auto-darkening lenses for a fraction of that the shop attached to the eye doctor's office wants to charge. I think then last time we got some type of a 2-for-1 deal, which lowered the price even more.

My wayfarers.....

New version is slightly slimmer, and use them as my main eyes, as they have scratch and glare resistant, Progressive and Transitions lenses, are $750 w/o insurance and about $220 with.

it was bought out years ago by another company, so that they weren't that good, any more. I don't know. That's what he said. He had bought a pair many years ago, then went to replace them years later when he lost his...they weren't the same good sunglasses, any more.

I can get 'em at the swap meet for 5 or 6 bucks.
"Lentes oscuros son marijuanos seguros."

Luxoittica the company listed in the article.

Ray Bans are now made in China and are crappy quality now days.

they are fake, the issue is that B & L Ray Ban was sold to Luxottica and the quality is no longer what it once was.

My sister works for LUX and is a Ray Ban rep. Some of the parts are made in Italy but they are ALL assembled in China. The screws are cheap and the craftsmanship is just no longer what It once was.

I don't agree with your assessment of quality, but fair enough.

https://www.glassescorp.co.uk/blogs/news/are-ray-ban-made-in-china

Glass lenses. Never scratch. And super stylish.

They do prescription as well. I love them. Even over my high dollar glass Costas and Ray Bans.

Made in France.

Frame and lens.

that they dictate the price on because they are almost the only game in town.
Heck there are even still other search engines other than Google open to everyone to freely use.

actually be feasible? If we were talking about old school broadcasting or print media it would be pretty simple but that is not the case here.

As Paul Ryan would say, “That’s a good thing.”

Say what you will about Ray-Bans, I've still got my original Aviators I paid $30! for in high school in late 70's. My parents almost knocked my teeth out for such expensive sunglasses. I've managed to accumulate quite a few different pair of Ray-Bans. I go to their website, find the style I like best, then head right to eBay! What Ray-Ban charges $200+ for, I can find on eBay for less than $50 most times.
Finally at the age where I required glasses last year. Eye Doctor more than happy to take my tortoise shell Ray-Bans and fit prescription lens' for very reasonable price. No idea if any, or all of my Ray-Bans are from Original Manufacturer, or from Luxotica, they're all lasting many, many years. I only change to new ones when I tire of current style. Working outdoors in Florida sun, hard on your eyes, and Ray-Bans are polarized, UVA and UVB. Never knew you could 'sunburn' your eyes till I wore a cheapie $5 pair one day delivering mail. Yup, keep Ray-Bans handy at all times.

I never used to be the thrifty type, but almost everything in retail today is made cheaply and costs way too much for what you get. There is more value in buying older stuff of higher quality. I found out it's more fun, too. It's a thrill finding a good bargain.

they cost $400 and I couldn't use them, because the optometrist wrote the prescription wrong. That was some time in the '90s.

I'd already been wearing contact lenses since I was 16, and vastly preferred them anyone because I could see much better with them than with glasses. I'd always been extremely nearsighted.

About seven years ago I had cataract surgery which was the best thing that ever happened to my eyes. I can see! Yeah, I still need reading glasses, but that's no big deal. When I wake up in the morning I can see! No struggling to get contact lenses into tired eyes.

I am grateful I don't need to buy prescription glasses any more.

walk in the rain. Never could tolerate contacts.

Extremely nearsighted here too. If I had known how easy the lens implant procedure is, I would have paid for it decades ago.

That's perfect! I used to say that it was a very good thing my hands and feet were attached to my body because otherwise I'd never find them if I had to search for them in the morning.

I had known for years that I had the beginnings of cataracts and then they suddenly got worse, and my eye doctor said it was time. I was 63, and thought maybe I'd delay until Medicare would pay for part. But I had an 80 year old friend who told me I was nuts, to get the surgery right away. She was right.

At every single appointment I was invariably by as much as 20 years, the youngest person in the room. A lot of the older ones had put it off because they'd remembered when their own parents had had cataract surgery and it wasn't anywhere near as good or easy a procedure as it has become.

I also noticed that every single person that looked in my eyes or at the paperwork would say, "Wow!" or something like that. So I finally asked, how bad were they? I was told that there are four kinds of cataracts and I had three of them. And that they're rated from 1 to 4. I was a 3 in one eye, a 3+ in the other. One of my friends said, "It's amazing you weren't walking into walls."

The other great thing is that my eye doctor has made it clear that I got even better results than he'd expected. I feel as if I can read small signs on distant hills, which isn't exactly true, but the clarity of my vision is astonishing to me, as I started wearing glasses in second grade. And I can recall not being able to see the blackboard in first grade. I was put in the front row (luckily I was short) and still had some trouble.

Which is why I can get furious at people who need glasses and refuse to wear them.

We buy all of ours from Zenni.com. I just got a new pair of titanium frames with progressive lenses and all the fancy coatings for about $70 delivered. Then a second pair of acrylic frames, same lenses, and a 70% sunglass tint for about the same price.

I've become a female Elton John because of Zenni. I HAVE to wear glasses all the time, so why not treat them like an accessory? I have black, tortoise, wire frames, even a red pair. I had a purple pair for a while. I also like Euybuydirect, 39dollarglasses and Goggles4U.

.


The most expensive sunglasses were $5.50 a pair unit cost. They would go out on the floor for $200.

The most expensive blue jeans were $8, the cheapest blue jeans were $8. One went out for $150, the other for $30.

Silk scarves, the kind you see on counters during the holidays, unit cost $0.75 to $1.25, went out from $40-$60.

Those fancy designer t-shirts, from boutique stores that sell for $40, cost only $1.50.


Most of the high-end merchandise requires retailers not to discount them. This keeps exclusivity.


.

They have driven up the prices at all of those brands they purchased but it's not like there aren't a huge number of alternatives. Costco makes great glasses that are far cheaper. My wife always used to go to Lens Crafters and this time she decided to try America's Best, it was about 50% cheaper and they were fantastic, lots of locations too.

In addition to all of this there are a myriad of online competitors starting with Warby Parker. The marketplace is being disrupted by start ups because of exactly what Luxottica has done, this is the way a properly functioning market works. Someone gets too big and starts raising prices and then small competitors come in and take away their monopoly.

and they have been doing this for over 20 years.

Great prices short wait but well worth it..

to this monopoly

from Zenni. And I paid an extra $18 for speedy delivery, they were here in less than 7 days. Amazing.

...but buying in the US doesn't really help our local economy with Luxxotica's business model.

So Zenni it is.

companies work hard to gobble up competition and become monopolies so that prices can be jacked up to maximize profits at our expense.

I've been telling you this until doubtless I sound like a broken record, but if we were to overturn that primacy of the shareholder with Elizabeth Warren's 'Accountable Capitalism Act,' CEOs would be forced to consider the needs of their workers, consumers and the environment equally with shareholder earnings. So, keep profits up, but if you sell insulin, for instance, make sure the price is low enough or there are subsidies so that people can actually afford it. Same, as here, with eyeglasses.

We're getting nickel and dimed to death, and we are witnessing the biggest heist in the history of humankind over the last couple of decades as more and more wealth is transferred to fewer and fewer people.

And then in 2017 we had the giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations - they are trying to complete the job.

THIS IS WHAT WE NEED TO BE TALKING ABOUT during the campaign. For God's sake don't call it 'socialism' if you think the Republican strategy of calling everything they don't like 'SO-shal-izm' is going to work against us.

But call it what it is - a giant ripoff where money we pay in as taxes is getting systematically transferred every single day in a thousand ways to fewer and fewer people. So we have massive inflation in health care, pharmaceuticals, eyeglasses, housing and so on. Just so some billionaire parasite can get a little richer.

I know it might surprise you to hear me say this, but I'm pretty fucking sick of it. I want healthcare now. I want the Green New Deal now (for my grandkids more than for me). I want Social Security to be safe and expanded. I want the giant tax cut of 2017 REPEALED and taxes raised so OUR government that WE pay taxes into can provide services that WE need and actually make OUR lives better.

You said what I was thinking.

So unless we clean up the government and get the corporations corrupt cronies out of office and into prison where they belong none of that is going to happen.

Third step, overturn Citizens United.

Fourth step, review and reverse all of the destructive executive orders of Trump.

Fifth step...yeah, I know...

Problem is we need a dynamic, charismatic leader who has the courage to speak truth to power, and go into a showdown when necessary. Somebody sometime ago called JFK the 'last gunslinger.'

Well, we need another one now because our time grows short.

So, our FIRST STEP needs to be to pull out all the stops in the way we communicate our message so people who hear us 'get' the real urgency of the situation. Carter called it the 'moral equivalent of war,' but MEW didn't take for obvious reasons. Obama called it the 'fierce urgency of NOW.' That's better but not quite it.

What do all of you think? The GOP has been kicking our asses with simple slogans for years and years and years. What's ours going to be? What is our communication strategy?

Because we don't really have time to do it slow, back centrists, be careful and all that. Some of these things need to happen now.

Where is the consumer protection agency, the government oversight committees that will investigate lone sports figures but not a ripoff scam affecting millions of Americans?

My job is very visual and my hobbies are fishing, gardening and hunting. Lasix was not cheap, but an interest free medical loan over 3 years made it very bearable.

I wore glasses from the time I was eight years old. To have better than 20/20 vision at age 45 was an emotional experience.


I’m now age 53 and my eyesight is still just as good as it was when I was six. I wear readers, but I knew that going in. I had Lasix because I was about to go into bifocals. Our transitions, or whatever they call it now. I finally could wear high-quality shade glasses which in Florida is critical.

Zenni Optical. Use it. They are good quality, and very inexpensive

There's quite a few sellers on aliexpress who sell frames fir lenses made according to prescription for a fraction of normal costs.

See this:

https://www.zennioptical.com/measuring-pd-infographic

And this:

https://www.zennioptical.com/measure-eyeglass-frame-size-how-to

They cut them to fit the shape of your lenses, so they look pretty good.

Zenni also allows you to upload a picture of yourself for a virtual try on.

If you have the misfortune of having close set eyes like I do (my pupils are only 56 mm apart) resist the urge to get the biggest trendiest, nerdy frames. They just won't be flattering because you will have a lot of extra lens ha and frame hanging out past your eyeball. Ideally, you want your eye to be in the approximately middle or the lens, especially horizontally. Also avoid very "tall" lenses if you have chubby cheeks or high cheekbones. Tall lenses will ride up on those cheeks when you smile and that's another unflattering look. Don't get aviators unless you have flat cheeks!

I'm including a picture of me wearing some wideass cateye glasses I got recently from Zenni. I still like them, especially with the $3.99 clip on sunglasses, but they are really too wide for my close set eyes.

at America's Best. 7-10 day delivery. Made in China, no doubt. She handed over the prescription from her ophthalmologist, and that was that. She did the same thing a couple of years ago. The first two pairs cost $99 for both, since she opted for more attractive frames than the "2 Pairs for $69" offer. The third pair, I don't know the price for.

So, I'm not sure Luxottica owns that outlet. You can also order prescription glasses online, also made in China, for even less. She did that once, but didn't like the fit of the frames very much.

In the old days, we prevented single companies from exerting monopoly power.

We now celebrate it as a sign of success.

They only sell in bulk though. $6 at the pharmacy I get my wife's CBD oil. Work great. Have a home pair (wearing them now) and one for the office. Nice styles too.

get the anti-trust acts out of whatever obscure bin they've stashed in, dust them off and apply them? Bust up the monopolies and big banks and social media companies? Like, yesterday?

I'm a recent victim too, and never again !