Nomenclature often gets in the way of uncomplicated ideas. So just so that we all understand what we are talking about, I wanted you to understand that in England, the word optician refers either to the business (or the person running the said business) that sells prescription glasses or contact lenses to the local population.
It’s big business, with the total revenue for England and Wales Optician market currently being around £2.4 billion - at least it was in 2006, but since then we’ve had a bit of a slow down in the economy. They estimate that about 2 in every 3 people in the UK needs some form of optical assistance - be it with specs or contact lenses.
Enshrined within UK law is the idea that your eyeglasses or contact lenses must be made on the basis of a prescription created by a formal eye test directed by a qualified optometrist or ophthalmologists. Amazingly, about 17.5 million eye tests are performed in England every single year.
Once you have given for your eye examination, the optician is legally obliged to present the resulting prescription to you. Now, they will want you to buy their stocked contact lenses or glasses, as that is how they make the major part of their profit. Yet, you don’t have to buy for your eyeglasses online” in the same office that conducted your eye test.
The real secret to saving a lot of money is to not pay less for a lower quality product, but to pay less for the same quality product. Buying your eyeglasses online is a great way to achieve this. You need to take a little care when selecting your vendor, but if you do the basic things right, you will soon be enjoying a wonderful new pair of specs in the near future and still have some spare change left!
