I wanted to use my first leader column in this new role to say how humbling it has been to be made the seventh editor in Optician’s long and illustrious history, and to thank now editor-in-chief Chris Bennett for his tutelage during my years on Optician – but last week’s episode of Supershoppers has left me feeling rather aggrieved.
It’s frustrating that a poorly researched TV programme made the editorial call to put saving a few quid above people’s eyesight and the reputation of professionals that care for public health.
Straight off the bat, the presenter asked strategy consultant Dr Tony Grundy: ‘So, what sort of tricks do they play to get people to buy expensive glasses?’ The default assumption that patients were being tricked somehow was bad enough, but Dr Grundy’s disparaging summary of contrived clinical settings and customers being softened up in white coat quasi-medical environments before being passed to a salesperson was shocking.
I telephoned Dr Grundy so that I could better understand how he had formed these opinions, but he declined to comment. He has published several books on strategic thinking, and I don’t for a second doubt his expertise. However, his comments on this particular subject were well wide of the mark. Optometrist and dispensing optician are protected titles that individuals work hard to achieve and subsequently maintain. Sadly, they have been caught up in cost-conscious crossfire.
Most things can be found cheaper online in 2019 and glasses are no different, but Supershoppers viewer Susan Smith asked if it was possible to find glasses and lenses of the same quality, but cheaper.
To answer that question properly, some semblance of product evaluation, beyond gently bending a temple at a dinner table and asking people on the street, was probably needed.
If there is an upside to all this, it’s that a few more patients may well pop into your practice for an adjustment or to fix a problem with their new glasses ‘bought off of the internet’.
