Periodically I have *important* thoughts on subjects other than food. (Shocking!) Thus this – and probably future – posts.
I recently ordered two new pairs of eyeglasses from a website. That statement alone is nothing short of miraculous. I do not buy items online very often. I am loathe to buy shoes online due to the wide-ranging variance in manufacture’s shoe sizes. Same for most clothing items. Another great drawback is the return/refund issue. Thus, Target is almost my lone purveyor of online goods due to the ease of return in-store, if necessary. Oh, and I don’t like to pay more for shipping. There’s that too.
However, a few months back there was a post on a blog I follow (Money Saving Mom: http://moneysavingmom.com/) about how she had discovered Zenni Optical and had a good experience with it. Basically Zenni has a wide range of frames to choose from, starting at about $6.95. You can digitally upload a glasses-free, front-facing picture of yourself so that you can “try on” the frames. (It’s pretty technical and specific so that made me feel pretty good, actually.)
I was in the market for some new eyeglasses & I’m always game for a good deal. The last time I bought glasses I went to America’s Best because they had a deal for 2 pairs of glasses & an eye exam for $69.99. HOWEVER, that included basic plastic lenses and this near-sighted gal needs a higher quality lens to avoid the bottle-cap mishap just waiting to happen. So I ended up paying over $200. Which was still a pretty good deal for 2 pairs of new glasses. But then I only ended up ever wearing one pair.
I learned my lesson and only sought out plastic frames for my new pairs, knowing that though I like the look of metal frames, I will not wear them in the end. And I limited my frame search to those in the lower price ranges. If I was waffling between two similar choices, I just went with the cheaper option. I loaded my “cart” with several choices and then involved my optician sister in the process. (She would not normally recommend such things, probably, but she knows my cheapskate ways & lack of funds for such frivolous items such as EYEWARE. Please note the heavily dripping sarcasm.)
She helped me select two good options. Then I went to a brand new eye place offering an eye exam for $29.99 (glasses prescription only). I graciously skirted the sales people there & went home to enter my prescription online, selected my lenses (again, with my sister’s help – I found this step to be more challenging, again because of my prescription strength & not knowing if one lens width would be worth the price difference, etc), breathed deeply and hit “submit order”. It took a couple weeks for manufacturing and delivery, but the magical day arrived.
I received two complete pairs of eyeglasses, along with a specific clip-on set of sunglass lenses for each pair (at just $3.95 each), all for under $110 shipped. And I like them. They’re definitely worth the price I paid. I could probably go to Walmart and get them “fitted” for free (or take a trip to see Sis) but since I go with plastic frames, sometimes that just makes them sit more askew anyway. (My sister will probably have a fit when she sees how they sit on my face, but I never see what she sees.)
If you have a relatively easy prescription, I would definitely give Zenni Optical a try!