Summer break comes, and it's the peak of student mirroring. In recent years, however, thousands of dollars of mirroring expenses have led parents to include near-sightedness and orthodontism in their growth hormones as part of the “three sets of losers” for their children。
There was a saying in the eyeglass world: "twenty dollars for mirror frames, 200 dollars for love, 300 dollars for friendship, 400 dollars for business." it's a mouthful, but it also reveals to some extent the “water depth” of the eyeglass market. How much is it going to cost a thousand-dollar pair of glasses? Who's making a profit
Hundreds of dollars in frames, 50 for wholesale price
“the mirror frame was chosen for the most expensive pure titanium frame in the store at a price of 600, the mirror was selected for a 1. 74 refraction rate of 2,000, and the store ended with a 60-50 discount at a total cost of $2,000.”
Niu, who works in the western city of beijing, has been plagued by high mirroring costs. Because of her high near-sightedness, she chooses a lens with a 1. 74 refraction rate of at least $12,000 per mirror, which is a significant expense based on a three-year swap, and a four-digit cost that makes her feel that she may have been “tucked”。
"the next time i go to pan's house with glasses, it's at least cheaper than the glasses store by the road." in her words, "pan's home" means beijing glass city, near the pan's home subway station, which brings together a large number of glasses sellers. According to the data, this was the earliest wholesale market for glasses in china。
Outside the town of beijing, journalists met luqiang (alias), who was distributing small cards, and he enthusiastically introduced the price of glasses to journalists。
When the journalist said, “in other glasses stores, a titanium alloy mirror is worth $3,400”, he even said, “we're wholesalers. In our store, titanium alloy glasses only cost $50, and pure titanium glasses cost $128”
Following visits to several shops in the city, journalists found that if brands were not pursued, 100 different types of titanium lenses could be bought, but if brands were involved, prices would be “higher”。
Wang lan (alias) runs a shop in the city of beijing. She told the reporter, "it's a $150 titanium mirror in the store, and if it's a lens, it'll be $120, but $280 if it's a brand, like kuan kuo-lin."
She added that “big brands will have brand premiums and prices will be expensive. If it's price-for-money, it's a simple titanium lens frame.”
A hundred-dollar lens and a thousand-dollar lens
The hundreds of-dollar mirror frames in the regular glasses store, which cost hundreds of dollars in beijing glass city, are also a source of surprise, “don't just go into a glasses store or regret it.”
People are feeling high premiums, and there are a variety of lenses. A consumer told reporters that “the lenses are `water deeper' than the mirror frames that distinguish them from material”
Generally, the glasses shop uses different refraction rates of 1. 56, 1. 60, 1. 67 and 1. 74. The higher the degree, the higher the appropriate refraction rate, the higher the price. In addition, prices vary from brand to brand and series to brand. Among them, the imported lenses are well known for chase, the viewer, etc., while the national lenses are represented by the sun, the miracle, etc。
In luqiang's glasses shop, a stack of manuals marked the price of the brand series. He took up the price manual for chase and introduced the series to journalists. Journalists noted that 1. 6 of the asian digital lens (dp) was very young and recommended a retail price of $2980. "here we are, we can make a 30-percent discount." lujian says, "the price is less than $1,000."。
In order to curb the development of the child's near-sightedness, zhang cheng, who worked in the west side, followed the advice of a doctor and equipped the child with a view-oriented star control lens. “at that time, the hospital offered nearly $4,000, and then went to a glasses shop in the front of the magnet, eventually costing 1,600 dollars.”
When it comes to the fun of stars, lu keung's colleague opened the box and said, "there's no less than $1550 in the city of glasses, and we can give it to $1460."
On the whole, the prices in beijing are significantly lower than in other regions. The same configuration could even reduce prices by more than half. In beijing, prices can vary by several dozen or even hundreds of dollars, owing to the discounts offered by the families。
In addition, consumer feedback indicates that prices vary widely from one place to another, not only in beijing. In order to avoid the pitfalls, many would even ask for prices online and listen to experienced people。
Who earns the profit
Faced with randomly negotiated prices, a lot of people wonder what the cost of these thousands of glasses is. How much money did the merchants make
When the journalist asked about the price of the glasses, lu said, "50 for titanium alloy frame, the price of the purchase is 40." however, with regard to the purchase price of the lenses, he simply indicated that the higher the purchase price, the higher the price。
As the “first share of the chinese lens”, it was revealed in a stock call that in 2020 the cost per lens was $6. 77 and the cost per mirror was $60. 33. Small lenses have also generated high profits, with a maori ratio of 60. 04 per cent in 2022。
The ph. D. Lenses, a leading domestic business in the retail trade of glasses, also have an enviable maori ratio. It disclosed price data for 2016, when the unit purchase price for mirror frames was $89. 06, compared with a sales price of $506. 88 for the same period; the unit purchase price per lens was $28. 82, compared to $281. 75 for the same period, which was nearly 10 times the cost。
When you look at this set of data, you're going to see the word "twilight" in your head. However, if you look at the net profit of the doctoral glasses, you find that the day is not as good as that of the retailer compared to the upstream supplier。
According to the financial statements, the cost of selling doctoral glasses is high. Of these, wages, social security and rent, property and utilities account for the bulk。
It's also the pressure on many glasses stores. Each shop needs to be staffed with sales staff and light examiners, and in order to increase the frequency of purchases, it also needs to be located in relatively luxuriant areas, with rents naturally higher。
My colleague lu qiang also told reporters, “we sell cheaply because we follow wholesale channels. The ordinary glasses store may be equipped with only three or five pairs of glasses in one day, which cannot be sustained unless it is more expensive to sell.”
Under a range of costs, it also leads to higher pricing on mirrors and lenses to maintain operations and secure profits, with the final result being consumer payments。
How do you rip off the eyeglass industry's "sharp" label
In the face of arbitrary pricing by the glasses store, in the view of jiang dang, a senior researcher in the taku think tank, consumers want to avoid being “holed”, first by choosing the regular glasses shop for mirroring and by looking at relevant information about the store's qualifications and credibility。
“second, when selecting lenses, the right brand and quality grade can be selected according to their needs, not blindly pursuing high prices or imported products.” jiang zheng mentioned that “finally, market prices and associated mirroring knowledge can be obtained in advance of the purchase in order to better judge whether a commercial price is reasonable”
However, identification and prevention by consumers alone is clearly inadequate. The relative regularization and transparency of eyeglass prices and the removal of the labels of “twilight profits” in the eyes of outsiders can also be addressed by strengthening regulations and regulating market order。
Previously, in the eyeglass industry, there had been a tendency for industry to speak out because of, on the one hand, the high pricing power of industry giants and, on the other hand, the inefficiency of long industrial chains。
In the face of price increases at various levels and high marketing costs, it is the view of industry that breaking the grip of giants on the supply chain, shortening the trading chain, providing consumers with products with high value for money or the future of the domestic eyeglass industry。
