Buying eyeglasses
 

We are going to Prague, Budapest, Paris and London on Wed. Does anyone know if you can get eyeglasses cheaper at any of these places than they are in the USA?

Surely not in London or Paris. The prices for eyeglasses there have always been astronomical.

I don't know about the places you've mentioned, but I thought the price of eyeglasses in Germany was also extremely high.

If you find some frames you really like, just bring them back to the US to have the lens put in.

Eyeglass prices are astronomical over here. I will be buying my next pair when I go home to visit Boston. It will save me at least $900, enough for the plane ticket.

I guess it depends what you want, and where you go, like anything else.

'Specsavers' in the UK are pretty cheap and on every high street. They do a 2-for-1 deal (2 pairs) from £75, so £37 a pair.But then I don't know how much they cost in the US.

But in any case, I would hardly call that astronomical.

I try to buy my glasses in the US since they are about half price they are in the UK. Specsavers are only cheap when you don't have high prescription or need varifocals and stuff like that. If you do then you can be easily be talking of £500 for a pair.

It's downright fatuous to claim - in the case of the poster making the nonsensical claim, on the basis of zero evidence, knowledge or experience of buying anything in Britain - that the prices for glasses in London have always been astronomical.

I recently bought a pair of glasses at a LensCrafters in Manhattan. I needed them urgently, they offered no alternative if you wanted a decent frame to buying an absurdly overpriced designer brand and competitive stores were just as limited and overpriced.

On return to London a couple of days later, I found in the Oxford Street Vision Express store the identical design - without the silly name, of course, becasuse we just don't waste money on brands in Britain - at less than half the ripoff American price.

This wasn't one isolated example: Vision Express's low prices applied across the whole of their range - and were generally undercut, though on naffer designs and generally only on 2-for-1 deals, by Boots Opticians and SpecSavers.

It may well be that there are El Cheapo, non rip-off, specs stores out in America's suburban malls - though no-one on this site's US board could point me to one reachable from Manhattan by public transport. But, whatever the churners-out of creative fantasies say, central London glasses prices were a great deal cheaper than in New York at £1=$2.10. At £1=$1.56: bring a truck over with you.

Note, though, that most glasses stores in London and Paris don't have labs on the premises and take a few days to make glasses up. All Grand Optical stores in Paris - and their subsidiary Vision Express in London - offer one-hour service on most prescriptions.

Strange reason to go to Europe IMHO.

What are "specsavers?' Are those that Americans know as "readers?" The ones you can buy in drugstores in various degrees of correctivity? (+1.25, etc)

ekscrunchy asked: "What are "specsavers?' "

Opticians who operate under a franchise arrangement. Proper eyesight tests, prescription glasses, good prices.

<<It's downright fatuous to claim - in the case of the poster making the nonsensical claim, on the basis of zero evidence, knowledge or experience of buying anything in Britain - that the prices for glasses in London have always been astronomical.>>

If you are referring to me, flanner, you are making a claim, on the basis of zero evidence, that I have no experience in buying anything in Britain. And you would be quite incorrect. I have had to purchase eyeglasses more than once in London.

Perhaps my experience was different from that of others. Is all.

In June 2007, DD bought some frames at Grand Optical in Paris. We waited to have her lens done til we got home. The eye doctor here asked what we paid for the frames and when I told him, he said it was much cheaper than here. They were Chanel, if anyone is curious. We didn't go looking to find cheaper frames, but rather DD found something she really liked and it was within our budget. BTW, she babies those glasses;)

I've found eyeglasses here in the States to be cheaper than in Europe. However, for years I bought my eyeglass frames in Europe because I loved the styles. I bought Mikli (Paris) since the beginning of the company.
I've been buying eyeglass frames in other European countries since the 70s. Happy Travels!

I forgot to add, before someone jumps in and chops off my head, that I've found glasses, in general, to be higher in Europe than here in the States. I've also priced non-designer frames along with lenses. Happy Travels!

We have bought glasses a few times in France: in Paris and Lyon, and they were <b>not</b> cheaper than ones in the US, but we thought the selection of frames was great!

I would buy glasses in France for the sake of fashion or out of necessity, but not to save money.

I was just looking at the cost of glasses in Paris when I was there last month, and I browsed and looked in several major chain stores, so they should be the cheapest (including Grand Optical). The prices were very high, much higher than I pay in the US. I think they were at least double if not more what I see in the US at any mid-level optical place.

The brands were the same international brands you can get anywhere, also, including US brands, so there isn't any real reason to buy them there (eg, Ray Ban, Gucci, Dior, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Oakley, etc). Why would glasses be cheaper in Paris, anyway, I can't think of any logical reason they would be. Maybe mms just has some very expensive stores where she lives and not a lot of choice, I don't know. I did check the prices.

Christina--I have no idea how our prices in my area stack up. I just know what DD's eye doctor said. We were there during the sale period, so maybe that is the reason.