NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, July 3 – 9, when compared with the previous week at a rate of -34 index points due to the July 4th holiday weekend. That places gross revenue at a level -7 index points below where it was at this point in time (Week 28) when compared with last year (2022), -4 points below the same period in 2021, -22 points below 2020, and -18 points below 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 rates of -34 index points for gross revenue, -31 index points for exams/refractions, -28 index points for frame units, -28 index points for lens pairs and -23 index points for contact lenses). When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, all categories were down, ranging from the greatest decrease of -10 index points for exams/refractions to the lowest decrease of -7 index points for both gross revenue and frame units.

The other categories decreased at rates of -8 index points for lens pairs and -9 index points for contact lenses.

With all optical sales categories decreasing last week, none of the categories reached a level above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. These ranged from a high of 85 index points for gross revenue to a low of 69 index points for exams/refractions. The other three categories reached 72 index points for frame units, 71 index points for lens pairs and 75 index points for contact lenses.

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