Price war

The combative nature of supermarkets seldom makes it into the rarefied world of optometry but it looks like all of that is about to change with the latest moves from ASDA.

It's a well-trodden path to publicity to knock the market leader and the bigger specsavers gets the more obvious a target it becomes. The latest to have taken this road is ASDA in its transparent pricing push.

Having travelled to an ASDA optical outlet last week to talk to its  optical strategists I can see why they want to make such a fuss about the offer and the mass of new products that have made it into it collection.

The way ASDA has gone about things was always bound to be a poke in the ribs for Specsavers and the new Boots/D&A giant. In years gone by few would have given the opticals a chance in a bust up with Wal Mart's ASDA. These days, given the size of the super opticals, who knows.

Any schadenfreude currently being enjoyed by the independents may also be shortlived. It may be nice to see the big boys slugging it out but there is also a caring spin off.

From a customers' point of view the transparent pricing promotion is a good offer. For some people with high prescriptions it could be a very good offer indeed. I was struck by the story of one high myope lady who had heard about the offer ( in the Daily Mail's piece) and wanted to check it was as open as presented. When she was told there would be no extra charges despite her -18 prescription she was delighted.

The first step for the patient was an eye test.After so many uyears of being told how much a new pair of specs would be she simply hadn't had her eyes tested and her prescription was over six years old.