‘THE STICKER SHOCK’ : Mind blown sticker scam

 The biggest mind-blow ever for me is ‘THE STICKER SHOCK’ or you can also call it as a sticker scam.

We all see that there are many brands available in the market to buy sunglasses from.

One might assume that there will be a huge competition between these brands to lure customers towards them and to make them buy their products.

In spite of the huge competition present, why the prices of sunglasses never go down?????

The answer is that there is no competition at all. Almost every big brand in the eye-wear industry is owned by an Italian brand ‘LUXOTTICA’.

Luxottica. Do you know who makes your glasses?

(See this short documentary for the complete information).

Let’s take Ray Ban as an example. This brand was originally created by the Bausch and Lomb (Bausch + Lomb) for the U.S army. But the brand was poorly managed and was eventually put up for sale. The Italian brand Luxottica bought it in 1999 and had the strategy to turn things around. They refurbished the brand Ray Ban and took it upscale. Today, those 29 $ pair can cost a hefty 200 $ and more. Presently, the Ray Ban is the top selling sunglass brand in the world.

Luxottica owns almost every big name in the sunglass industry.

The house brands for Luxottica include the following: (Source: Luxottica)

• Alain Mikli
• Arnette
• Eye Safety Systems (ESS)
• Oakley
• Oliver Peoples
• Persol
• Ray-Ban
• Sferoflex
• Vogue Eyewear

The company also makes eyewear under license for the following designer labels: (Source: Luxottica)

• Giorgio Armani
• Brooks Brothers
• Bulgari
• Burberry
• Chanel
• Coach
• Dolce & Gabbana
• DKNY
• Michael Kors
• Miu Miu
• Polo Ralph Lauren
• Paul Smith Spectacles
• Prada
• Ralph Lauren
• Starck Eyes
• Tiffany & Co.
• Tory Burch
• Valentino
• Versace

Luxottica Retail has approximately 8,000 retail locations in the United States, Latin America, Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates. Their retail banners include the following:(Source: Luxottica)

• Sunglass Hut International
• Apex by Sunglass Hut
• LensCrafters
• Pearle Vision
• Sears Optical
• Target Optical
• OPSM
• ILORI
• EyeMed Vision Care
• Optical Shop of Aspen
• Laubman & Pank
• GMO
• Oliver Peoples
• Alain Mikli
• Oakley

Therefore, moral of the story is that as long as Luxottica is sitting at the top, we should never expect prices for the branded sunglasses to come down.