Painter Print

Language often gets in the way of plain ideas. So just so that we all understand what we are talking about, I wanted you to understand that in England, the term optician refers either to the business (or the person running the said business) that sells prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses to the local population.

It’s big business, with the total revenue for the UK Optician market currently being around £2.4 billion - at least it was in 2006, but since then we have had a bit of a slow down in the economy. They estimate that about 2 in every 3 people in England needs some sort of optical assistance - be it with spectacles or contact lenses.

According to UK law, spectacles and contact lenses need to be manufactured on the foundation of a formal eye test. The eye examination needs to be conducted by a certified optopmetrist or ophthalmologist. There are about 17.5 million of these performed every year.

Once you have paid for your eye test, the optician is legally obliged to present the resulting prescription to you. Now, they will want you to buy their stocked contact lenses or spectacles, as that is how they make the major part of their profit. Nonetheless, you don’t have to buy for your glasses online” in the same position that conducted your eye test.

The real secret to saving a lot of money is to not pay less for a lower quality product, but to pay less for the same quality product. Buying your specs online is a great way to achieve this. You need to take a little care when selecting your vendor, but if you do the basic things right, you will soon be enjoying a wonderful new pair of specs in the near future and still have some spare change left!