NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased last week, Sept. 12-18, at a rate of 17 index points, regaining much but not all of the decline of -21 index points it experienced the week prior due to the Labor Day holiday. That places gross revenue at a level 10 points above where it was at this point in time (Week 38) when compared with last year, equal to the same period in 2020, 13 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.
 
All optical sales categories were up last week when compared with the previous week, regaining much but not all of the declines experienced during the Labor Day holiday week prior. Increases last week ranged from a high of 17 index points for both gross revenue and exams/refractions to a low of 10 index points for contact lenses. 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 1 index point for lens pairs.
 
Although all optical sales increased last week when compared with the previous week, only one category reached a level above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. Gross revenue reached a level of 110 index points. All other categories were below the baseline of 100, ranging from 96 index points for exams/refractions to 89 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.
 
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