VM REPORTS: Top 50 Retailers VisionWatch Analyzes Total Vision-Care Market By Cathy Ciccolella Monday, May 19, 2008 4:00 AM RELATED CONTENT Cover Story: VM's 50 Top U.S. Optical Retailers 2008 Key Players Ranked By U.S. Sales in Calendar 2007 Lagging Economy Gives Sales Boost To Mass Merchants, Warehouse Clubs Leading Mass Merchants with Optical Departments Top 10 Snapshots Top 50 Optical Retailers Methodology Top 50 Retailers’ Sales Reach $7 Billion Mark NEW YORK—Improved technology for measuring vision-care products and services is providing a broadened view of the total eyecare marketplace. Using the latest methods of analyzing the complete market, based on an in-depth study of consumer buying patterns, VisionWatch estimates the overall vision-care business at optical locations—including optical chains, other chains, independents with optical locations, leased optical spaces in department stores and mass merchant optical locations—at just under $25.8 billion for calendar 2007. Those sales include money spent at all optical retail locations on the sale of either spectacle lenses (regular Rx and Rx sun), frames, contact lenses, sunglasses (plano and Rx), OTC readers, or revenues earned from refractive surgery or eye examinations. This number does not include sunglass clips, and reflects the dollars spent only by those U.S. residents 18 and older; it does not include retail dollars spent by/for those 17 years of age and younger. VisionWatch, a joint venture of Jobson Optical Group and The Vision Council, is a continuous consumer study that interviews 100,000 consumers on an annual basis. The information produced by VisionWatch provides not only a broad view of vision-related markets, but also fine details on specific areas of the market. ■