National pricing strategies adopted by the larger optical chains are helping independent retailers to survive, according to new research published by the Economic and Social Research Council.
National rather than local pricing strategies actually protect smaller retailers from intense local competition that could arise in areas where several optical chains have a presence.
'If you had the major chain stores all setting local prices in one town, that could lead to intense competition, and price wars, between them which would negatively affect the smaller, independent retailers,' explained Matt Olczak, research associate at the ESRC Centre for Competition Policy.
'It is clear that the opticians market needs to be monitored regularly, since a change in pricing strategy by any of the chain stores could have a negative impact on the independents.'
Specsavers, Boots, Dollond & Aitchison and Vision Express determine their prices predominantly on a national basis.
However, Olczak noted that Optical Express was one chain which had grown rapidly in the past five years and he attributed this, in part, to its local pricing strategies.
'It will be interesting to watch what effect this has on the market in the future,' he said.
The study - Chain store pricing and the structure of retail markets - follows a report from the All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group which predicted that in the next decade, many small retailers were likely to close their doors.
The report added that since deregulation in the 1980s, chains had grown rapidly. Between 1988 and 1991, chains' market share had grown from 46 to 75 per cent.