Glenn Beck is an Ignorant Jackass — Finally Something Decent from Luxottica

Posted on September 14, 2009
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Luxottica is one of sixty-two (62!) advertisers that has pulled their ads from Fox News over Glenn Beck’s comments on Presidential racism. Lots of money is being taken off the table.

Read more here: http://reclaimthemedia.org/media_literacy/bias/ad_boycott_costs_glenn_beck_ov1438

No one likes a thief…

Posted on September 5, 2009
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…but I have an issue with this being a “felony” crime. The felony is in the pricing of these frames.

Here’s a link to the story from the Northwest Herald of McHenry County, Illinois.

And here are some of the pertinent details to this sting operation:

A 34 year-old Crystal Lake, IL man tried to buy a dozen pairs of eyeglasses that he thought were stolen — from an undercover cop for $520. Ouch.

The “retail value” of the frames was $3,286. That’s $273 pair!

There were some silly name brands in there such as Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Versace.

He’s been selling them to friends and family and on auction sites. Yeah, he’s a criminal.

This isn’t a good guy to be sure, but the true cost of those frames is much less than $200. The felony theft threshold is $300 in Illinois. This guy is a thief and is going to be a felon due to the insane pricing of designer eyeglass frames.

—

The first dozen pairs of glasses I bought starting in October 2006, set me back a total of less than $300 — INCLUDING LENSES!

AAA Lenscrafters, Pearle, Sears Optical, Target Optical Discounts

Posted on August 19, 2009
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Funny. I’d have thought this was a pretty good deal a few years ago. Now I find it interesting that they allowed AAA to lump all of their stores together in a press-release (http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/aaa-helps-parents-prepare-students-for-the-school-year,931270.shtml). Luxottica, smartly, doesn’t go out of their way to say “all your optical stores are belong to us” — even though they are.

So 30% of say, $300 is $210 — still not a bargain, and I bet they’re pushing the coatings, extended warranties and such twice as hard.

Wear your helmet if you’re thinking of “taking advantage” of this deal.

LensCrafters Ignores Sexual Harassment Pleas — Sued by EEOC

Posted on July 10, 2009
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In what feels like an episode of “Bizarro-Mad Men” a male Saginaw, Michigan LensCrafters employee was “repeatedly subjected to unwelcome sexual advances, comments, and touching,” by a female co-worker. He complained, but was ignored by LensCrafters management.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit in his behalf today.

Next time you’re in LensCrafters be sure to wear your Kevlar underpants, you really don’t know what can happen.

Lest we forget, LensCrafters is the U.S. flagship of the international Luxottica Group.

Read more here: http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/36628/

Yea California!

Posted on June 1, 2009
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From CourthouseNews.com:

“The 9th Circuit reinstated California laws barring eyewear companies from advertising and selling prescription glasses in the same place that customers get their eyes examined.”

I had no idea that this had ever stopped being the case in California, but good on the 9th Circuit Court for fixing the problem.

“LensCrafters argued that the law discriminates against opticians by stripping them of the ability to provide “one-stop shopping” for their customers, although the state allows optometrists and ophthalmologists to set up practices where customers can get their eyes checked and also buy prescription eyewear.”

LensCrafters is seeing lagging profits and this will not help. They again, no longer have the upper hand in walking the unsuspecting customer into the showroom and pitching the over-priced frames and lenses.

I’d need to read the case-law more closely to predict how Luxottica will circumvent this next. If I had to guess it might be something like this:

R A

Y B A N

O A K L E Y B V

L G A R I V E R S A

C E R E V O F E R R A G A M O
M I U M I U B U Y R I G H T N O W

Read more here.

Eyeglasses Forecast for South America? Falling options and rising prices!

Posted on May 27, 2009
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logo_multiopticasLuxottica just bought a big chunk of Multiopticas, a Spanish-owned South American chain of eyeglasses stores for 40M Euros. They have an option to buy the rest in a few years.

One more reason to get the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the GlassyEyes site going.

And the beat goes on.

LensCrafters Cost Cutting Involves Completely Reloading Stores?

Posted on May 14, 2009
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I mentioned this post over at EyeOverheard, well yesterday, and what makes it so interesting apart from the tone of the post, is the volume of comments.

LensCrafters is a mess, and the byzantine methods they’re using to dig themselves out make their frame and lens pricing strategies seem downright forthright and fair.

Here’s a link to one employee’s experience in recent weeks. Good luck to all of you still employed, you’re in for a wild ride (to help pay for the next incarnation of Leonardo’s next yacht).

Stock the stores with even less-qualified employees? Sounds like a great plan to me!

NEWS FLASH! Luxottica stock soars as Q1 profits drop ONLY 22.5%!

Posted on May 13, 2009
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Luxottica surprises analysts with an amazing quarter in which it’s profits dropped only 22.5% compared to the 41% that was predicted.

Cost cutting (read about the salary cuts over at our friends at EyeOverheard) was said to be an important factor in these fantastic quarterly results.

€80 Million in revenue for the quarter tells me there is still a whole lot of stupid out there.

Read more here (via Reuters).

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