NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, Aug. 14–20, when compared with the previous week at a rate of 7 index points. That puts gross revenue at an even index point level to what it was at this point in time (Week 34) when compared with last year (2022), 10 points above the same period in 2021, 4 points above 2020 and 9 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

All optical sales categories were down last week when compared with the previous week, at rate of -7 index point for gross revenue, -6 index points for exams/refractions, -6 index points for frame units, -5 index points for lens pairs and -4 index point for contact lenses. When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, all categories besides gross revenue (which was flat) were down between -2 and -4 index points.

With optical sales categories decreasing last week, four categories hovered around the index baseline of an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker—101 index points for exams/refractions, 98 index points for lens pairs, 97 index points for frame units and 95 index points for contact lenses. Gross revenue reached the highest level at 116 points.

Jobson Optical Research selected 1,500 optical locations that have been operating and reporting their sales to its partners, GPN and ABB Analytics, since 2019. The index has been rebased to an average week in 2019. Going forward, this new index base will be used as an arbitrary benchmark and assigned a value of 100.

Click here to view the complete Jobson COVID-19 Performance Tracker