Although its been widely accepted that supermarket opticians have not brought about the apocalypse in optometry that some doom-mongering practitioners envisaged, the thought of another major retailer trying its hand at providing GOS could bring some practitioners out in a cold sweat, especially if the name Woolworths is mentioned. Hopefully any of you that descended into panic at internet reports that Woolworths was to be opening practices within its stores read to the end of the article and realised that the Woolworths in question was Woolworths Australia, a nationwide food retailer and an entirely separate entity from the UK's high-street shop. The mention of Woolworths and optometry in the same sentence has particular resonance for some UK practitioners who may recall when the British chain opened a number of optical practices within its stores in conjunction with Chapman’s opticians. At the time the move was believed to herald the end of optometry as everyone knew it. The fact that Woolworths stores in the UK no longer have optical practices goes to show that the doom-mongers can get it wrong.
Opinion