DRAPER, Utah—1-800 Contacts Inc., the leading online contact lens retailer in the U.S., is testing the brick-and-mortar retail space with the opening of two “high-service, boutique environment” Lumen Optical stores outside of Chicago, with a third store opening planned for December.

The second of the two brick-and-mortar stores (3,100 square feet) opened last week in Mount Prospect, Ill., and the first store under the Lumen Optical banner, a 3,300-square-foot space, opened in Kildeer, Ill., in the February/March time period. Both stores are northwest of Chicago. A third Lumen Optical store is scheduled to open in Evanston, Ill., in December, according to a marketing manager at the retailer.

Laura Schmidt, marketing director at 1-800 Contacts, described the business relationship between 1-800 Contacts and Lumen Optical as “sister companies.”

“This is another example of things we are testing all the time,” Schmidt told VMail, in response to questions about Lumen. She noted that the company’s recent partnership with the online eye exam startup Opternative began as a test, also, as VMail reported in August.



“At this point, it’s just a pilot or a laboratory,” she said, to gather learnings about the brick-and-mortar side of the optometry business. At least one more store (in addition to the Evanston location) is in the planning stages, she confirmed. She declined to provide any information on the timetable, but acknowledged that the stores are likely to be in the Chicagoland market. She said Lumen Optical has a separate management team overseeing operations of the stores, but she declined to provide additional details.

John Graham, president of 1-800 Contacts, is identified as the manager of Lumen Optical in corporate registration documents filed by Lumen Optical with the State of Utah’s Department of Commerce.

At store level, the interior of the new Lumen Optical stores are designed to provide consumers with a “high-service, boutique environment” and to emphasize service, according to the retailer’s website. The site notes that Lumen Optical has “rethought your entire optical experience, from the exam to choosing lenses to receiving your glasses, and redesigned it around you. The result is a high-service boutique environment without the next-day buyer’s remorse. Choose to browse our frames yourself, or pull up to the Frames Bar and relax while our trained stylists help you discover the perfect look. Because we make our own custom lenses in-house, you’ll have your new glasses in just 24 hours.”



The stores are designed to “steer clear of the cold and clinical,” and instead appear to be “thoughtful and welcoming,” the website noted. Bergmeyer, a Boston-based architecture and design firm, partnered with 1-800-Contacts “to conceptualize and design an entirely new retail eyewear brand,” according to a spokeswoman for Bergmeyer.

At Lumen Optical, eye exams are priced at $79, and this price is prominently displayed. The exam includes a contact lens fitting and retinal imaging at no extra charge. There also is a wide assortment of frames, in prices ranging from $49 to $699.

The Lumen Optical website also noted that the retailer “makes its own lenses in a facility in Elmhurst, [so] prices can be lower and include materials and enhancements that are considered upgrades in other shops. They can also be turned around in about 24 hours.”

In December 2015, the private equity firm AEA Investors agreed to acquire a majority interest of 1-800 Contacts from Thomas H. Lee Partners, which remained “a significant shareholder in the company” following the transaction. The terms of that transaction were not disclosed, as VMail reported last December.