Why do prescription glasses cost $300? And why was I duped into forking over that much?

Five years ago, my eyesight went fuzzy. I was a college teacher, and the back of the classroom was a blur.

So I visited an optometrist. He said I needed glasses, and he told me which frames would look great on my face. Impulsively, I chose a pair that didn’t really look great at all — probably not on anyone’s face — and I forked over $300 for them.

Why did I do this? Part of it was my aversion to shopping, and part of it was that I didn’t know better. I’d never paid attention to the price range of glasses, and I didn’t understand that paying $300 for a pair of glasses is a rip off.

It should have been obvious. $300 is a lot of money for wire and plastic, right? The frame was plastic and the lenses were plastic, and together they cost $300. When I was a tween I bought Star Wars action figures that had more plastic on them and were 1/50th the price, so I should have known better, but I didn’t. I bought the glasses.

Now I’m looking to buy my second pair.*

I have vision insurance from work, and this morning I found a place that’s covered on my plan and called them for pricing. It turns out that after my insurance kicks in, I’m looking at ~$90 for the glasses I want. Much better.

But still. That’s $90 after insurance, and that means that the glasses themselves are so pricey.

What gives?

I started looking online for more options, and I gave Warby Parker a look.

Warby Parker, I discovered, is a brand that’s sticking it to the bespectacled man. They’re fighting a company named Luxottica, which owns almost all the big glasses brands (Oakley, Ralph Polo, Ray Ban, Chanel, etc.), several large glasses retailers (Lenscrafter, Pearle Vision, Target Optical, Sears, etc.), and the second-biggest vision insurance company in the United States (eyemed).

Because Luxottica owns so much of the industry, they can set price points and people will pay. They can pressure local sellers to charge their high prices because local sellers want to offer the big brands (and because local sellers want some of the cashmoney). Also, Luxottica doesn’t have to worry too much about price-jacking because eyemed will soothe the plebs like me who would otherwise revolt about price.

Anyway, back to Warby Parker. This (mostly) online store charges $95 for frames and glasses, and they let you order 5 pairs to try on for free (with free shipping both ways) before you buy. Basically they’ve found a way to (behold!) make wire and plastic cost less. It’s called: Not being greedy jerks.

Here are the five pairs I ordered to try on. As you can see, I’m looking to make my face louder.

What do you think? I like them.

But more importantly, what do you think about buying glasses? I’ve now spent about 2.3 hours of my life thinking about this topic, so I’m still a naive piece of blip here. What am I missing? Have I oversimplified the issue, or is the glasses industry truly screwed up? What do you think it takes for consumers to revolt about overpriced products?

*My second pair of glasses, which I wear now, was “free.” My dad does taxes for an optometrist and they do this credit trade-y thing that I took advantage of. Free glasses are the best glasses, but it looks like $95 glasses are second best.