Luxottica: the illusion of choice and what you’re really getting when you spend hundreds of dollars on glasses.
This documentary was broadcast 13 years ago. Since then, Luxottica, the monopolistic Italian frames manufacturer, merged with Essilor, the largest ophthalmic lens manufacturer in the world. Today, EssilorLuxottica vertically controls 80% of the eyewear industry.
Here are more recent documentaries about EssilorLuxottica:
That’s only partially true. When you need glasses, it’s not so much that you’re willing to pay for it, it’s that you have to.
It’s true that you can go to the eye doctor, get a prescription, then take the time to shop around - possibly take a chance ordering online - to get glasses on the cheap. But realistically, most people don’t do that. They need glasses and they go to their local brick-and-mortar, and cheaper alternatives are rarely so massively cheaper that it’s worth taking the time to find them because they need the glasses right now. And the insurance possibly covers part of the cost so it looks less bad.
That’s how companies like Luxottica get away with setting high prices and saying “people are willing to pay for it”. They know consumers aren’t perfectly rational buyers and they create enough friction in the marketplace to get people to suck it up, particularly since glasses are more a need than a want most of the time.