Manhattan opticians
 

You've all been terrifically helpful in helping me organise a short jaunt to New York. With luck, this is the last question:

Either the LensCrafters site's not working properly or there really is no LensCrafters in Manhattan. Or I need glasses even more than I thought. So: anyone know a one-hour spectacle place in Manhattan that has an optometrist (in case there's a language confusion here: the person who does eye tests) on the premises?

Cohen's Fashion Optical is the big optical shop in NYC. I'm not sure if they provide true one-hour service, but I'm sure they can get you glasses quickly.

They are all over town. There's a convenient store at 14th/5th Avenue. But there's another close to Macy's.

There was once a LensCrafter in the Manhattan Mall, but it's gone now. I'm not sure if there's another.

Thanks.

That's v helpful: they claim a one hour service. And their website lists which branches do eyetests when I'm around.

There is a LensCrafters on Fifth Avenue at 45th Street. Cohens has more of a high end selection of frames.

Also, there are a few other non-chain opticians in the area since the optometry school is near. They are mostly on West 43rd-45th between 5th and 6th. I'm sure some have availability of optometrists, but haven't had experience for that service.

I've had some of these smaller shops do work on my eyeglasses - and they were able to do repairs immediately and at no or minimal charge.

Let me know if you want me to round up any names and #s of these other places.

There's a "fancy" Lenscrafters on Broadway around 70th street

There seem to be plenty in the city according to the Lenscrafters website that I checked.
On the site, look for "store locations" on the bottom of the page. You can put in a midtown zipcode like 10001 to search

A couple of the chains "offer" one hour service - but they really can;t do it. The best I've done is about 5 days - since they don;t do the lenses on the spot - and will always tell you that "your prescription is complicated" and they will call you in 4/5 days.

If you really need them in one hour call in advance to be sure that they can do it (I would be amazed if they can).

I agree with nytraveler. Rarely can these places really do glasses in an hour. There's always some excuse (they have to order the frames, the lenses are a special size etc.) Don't expect 1 hr. service for anything but a simple repair.

Thanks to you all so far. The LensCrafters site is now working for me, and I'm delighted to see most do eye tests. Any other optical superstores in the area?

Some of you are being unfair to the industry (I used to run a chain of optical superstores in another country, many, many years ago).

The one hour thing is absolutely standard for "ordinary" lenses. It may sometimes mean 70 minutes, but in my day 80-90% of prescriptions were delivered in more or less an hour. It might be less in Manhattan for one of three reasons:
- the shops are physically small, so they can run out of a specific lens easily (obviously likelier somewhere like Manhattan where real estate's so pricey
- labour turnover's high, so inventory's not managed properly (though technology should have sorted that out), but most likely of all:
- you really have got a prescription for something they don't stock - like varifocals. This is common among the over 40s - a group better represented, I suspect, on this board than among the population at large.

My own experience of one hour places in US suburban malls and strip centres is that every pair I've ever bought in them for myself has arrived within 90 minutes.

Not your question, but there are some good deals to be had on designer frames in Chinatown.

Well - I don;t know about your experience, but I have bought glasses in NYC many times - at several different stores and different branches. And none of them make lenses on the spot. They all send them out to be made - which I found out when I started to ask questions about why they needed a week. (One said - we only get deliveries on M, W & F.)