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Opticial practices across the country have witnessed a decline in sales of sunglasses for the first six months of this year, an Optician poll has revealed.

Practitioners have attributed the slump to poor weather, the credit crunch, internet sales and the popularity of photochromic lenses. Optician findings mirror those of research group GfK's retail sales data revealing that sunglass sales through premium opticians were down 16 per cent in volume in May 2008, compared to May 2007. (Full details to be featured in next week's Optician).

Andrew Roberts, director of Lloyd Roberts in Weybridge, said that sales were better in 2008 than in 2007 due to last summer's terrible weather, but were lower than 2006 and 'not what I'd expect them to be'.

Blaming poor sales figures on the current economic climate, Roberts explained: 'Sunglasses are impulse purchases and people are making less impulse purchases right now.'

Andrew Bolton Opticians in Dundee has experienced lower sales in 2008 than in previous years. 'My gut feeling is that it's the internet, but the financial climate could also be a factor. We're situated in a secondary shopping location, so people come here specifically for an eye test rather than to browse,' said owner Andrew Bolton.

Azra Iqbal of Blustons Opticians in Manchester estimated that sales of sunglasses were slightly lower than last year because of the increasing popularity of photochromic lenses. 'Customers only need to buy one pair of frames rather than separate sunglasses and optical frames,' he said.

Lab technician Tom Penn of See World Optical in Aintree commented: 'It's mainly the weather that has affected sales. It's been raining most of the summer, so people don't want sunglasses.'

Penn added: 'We got our sunglass collection in fairly late so we missed the good weather around May.'

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