NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased substantially by -21 index points last week, Sept. 5-11, as a result of the Labor Day holiday occurring at the beginning of the period being tracked. That places gross revenue at a level 10 points above where it was at this point in time (Week 37) when compared with last year, 3 points above the same period in 2020, but 10 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 due to the Labor Day holiday. Gross revenue’s decline of -21 index points was the steepest, followed by exams/refractions and frame units, both declining by -20 points, lens pairs down 19 points and contact lenses down 14 points When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, all categories were up, ranging from the largest increase of 10 index points for gross revenue to the smallest increase of 4 index points for lens pairs.  
 
With all optical sales decreasing substantially last week as a result of the Labor Day holiday, all categories reached levels below an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. These ranged from a high of 92 index points for gross revenue to a low of 79 index points for both exams/refractions and 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