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NEW YORK--The past two decades have seen myriad changes--both evolutionary and revolutionary--in the eyewear/eyecare landscape that have affected both eyecare practitioners and optical retailers.
In some cases, ECPs and retailers alike have been impacted since 1987 by similar factors: the rise of managed vision care, the development of new digital technologies, an influx of new players into their segments of the marketplace. In others, ECPs and retailers have faced different challenges, some of which have put them in greater competition with each other.
The mushrooming growth of the optical chain segment with its in-house eye exams and quick eyeglass service, for example, initially affected optometrists (and to a lesser extent ophthalmologists) on the professional-services side, while smaller retailers faced competitive pressures from the chains primarily on eyewear sales. But as an increasing number of independent retailers and opticians began adapting the chains’ more “commercial” merchandising methods and fashion-oriented product influences, they became stronger competitors for an OD population that was also putting more emphasis on its dispensaries.
In this Special Report, part of VM’s ongoing celebration of the 20th anniversary of its founding, ECPs from around the country reflect on how the changes in both optometry and ophthalmology have affected their practices and the way they interact with their patients. Separately, optical retailers--both chain executives and independents--explore how the retail players and products, and even their methods of addressing their customers, have in the past 20 years shifted and how they have kept up with those alterations in the retail spectrum. --Cathy Ciccolella and the VM staff