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Comment by tomrod | Hacker News Reader

Say they do. What then? Will people buy from them? What if we decide not to?

At a certain point, you don't have a choice. Before China got into the game, the only way to avoid giving Luxotica money if you wanted a pair of glasses was to essentially not buy glasses. This is the same for many industries -- consolidation behind the scenes.

e.g. Zenni has sold $7 glasses for like 20+ years. They appeared shortly after Luxotica started buying retailers. If there's a problem, it's that advertising reduces consumer information (basically economic jamming) and distorts markets.

Huh? I've been able to buy reasonably priced glasses for all my life. (However, I've never lived in the US nor China.)

What is reasonably priced? Lenses are lenses so one vould debate the real cost, but the frames are incredibly overpriced for a piece of metal or plastic with two joints and those components that land on your nose.

Frames could literally cost 1 dollar (only happened after china entered this market), but good luck finding ones like this with good lenses.

You need to buy from one supplier who intentionally offers cheapest frames for 50+ dollars and those frames look like crap. The ones that look better (even if same plastic) cost 500+ dollars - and all due to price gouging.

For lenses I am not sure, but suspect something similar.

I grew up in Germany, but I got frames in UK and Singapore and Australia, too.

Fielmann in Germany has been offering very reasonably priced glasses and frames for ages.

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