NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, April 11-17, at a rate of -9 index points. That places gross revenue at a level -3 points below where it was at this point in time (Week 16) when compared with last year but 5 points above 2019. During 2020, however, with pandemic-related, mandated shutdowns in effect, gross revenue was at a level of 15 index points. That’s 90 points below Week 16 of this year, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

All optical sales categories decreased last week, likely due in part to the convergence of several major religious holidays. Declines ranged from a low of -7 index points for contact lenses to a high of -11 index points for lens pairs. Last year, Easter weekend was Week 14, which experienced a similar drop across categories.

With all optical sales decreasing last week, only one category remains at a level above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. At 105 index points, gross revenue is above an average week in 2019, while all other optical sales categories are below that benchmark.

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.