i work in spectacle shop before & to tell you the truth, they actually earns more than what people think.

earn from:
-returning customers
-contact lens, solution, etc
-sunglasses

but most importantly is from the lenses & frame that they sell. The price for the frame is actually 2-3x more than the original price & yes that is just the frame. Havent include the profit they make from the lens. Some more there are customers who change their frame like every month..must be some richfag or something but he returned to the shop many times & change spectacle so my boss earn like that lor, but of course returning customers reduce the price so that he come again...

I saw the book where my boss record the price for each frames & from the sales i can say the profit margin is very high. So yeah...they can survive but if new business its harder la coz not much returning customers....like the shop i worked before is very old so many trusted old customers go back....i know coz he keep the customers record details & everytime i need to go dig up...so mafan

smaller new shops wont tahan long, there were few competitors opened near the shop i worked before and after few months close down coz cant compete. Mainly its because the shop is new, if you wanted to buy a spectacle will you go to a new shop that you never heard of before compare to a old 1 next door? Are you willing to risk your glasses power to be determined by someone who you are not even really sure qualified or not compare to someone else next door who have so many years of experiences?

Yes price war is going on but my boss dont get involved in those, only major branches like focus point etc do that. They got all sort of school sales la this that but the sales they do is on ugly/cheap frames. Last time a competitor did cut price to challenge my boss shop, in the end he got angry and made 0 profit on all the frames. Major sales, few months went by and the shop had to close down. So as a competitor you cant simply cut prices also...

My boss make the most profit on expensive branded stuff, like ray ban, zerox frame, sunglasses etc...it can cost up to rm1k just for 1 sunglasses and the profit you know la

Online sales is a different story, it dosent really work out for spectacle because if you want to buy spectacle how you going to check your eye power? There are some customer who bought frame online & come to make lens but even buying online frames is risky because different frames fits different head, we all got different size & shape face so need to try physically in order to find the matching one...

also yeah you cant simply reduce the price, distributors will check they usually have a limit that you cant sell this particular frame lower than this specified price...

yeah depends on customers but even ray ban sunglasses got sizes. If you know your size then sure you can buy online but usually not everyone knows their size. They usually would like to try it on first then only buy which suits the best. Plus sunglasses usually is bought as a gift in the place i work, so yeah wife will come in & start trying for the husband etc...

rm1k i was referring to zerox, but for ray ban depends lor...different models different price...some range from 350-450 & some higher... distributor them self already set and make the profit, then they will give a recommended price the sunglasses should sell to the shop. Its then up the the shop whatever price he want to put...some shop sells expensive some cheaper due to the rent lor....some just simply put really high price for new models....etc...

thats why when you are a sales men you need to be smart to read the person. If the person is not going to buy you can know so dont layan that person lor....also usually we ask them to check their power first....if they refuse then thats a sign they not interested in buying actually. Its all business man....you need to get involved in it to know....

yes but the world dosent work like that....many of my customers are old chinese pipul....all return back the the old shop because we give good advice, etc....its all about customer service also....new shops usually put inexperience young workers...they dont know how to handle customers...and you cant simply reduce the price... disturbor will check & if they find out they will blacklist you...

also it depends on the month....usually holiday, or weekends got customers...weekdays people busy working...no time to bring kids out for eye check etc...sunglasses etc usually people buy as gifts like christmas present, deepavali etc...

this is why you are wrong, each ray ban got its unique tag....they can track if they want. Its not that hard actually....i dont know about online sales i am referring to physical sales but yeah distributor will control so you cant simply reduce dirt cheap.

There is also grade AA ray ban....for those who dont know much, easy to fool them lol....of course we dont lol....there is even few old model ray ban sunglasses that is BL....BL yo....its very rare to find BL models anymore....limited stock though....you go any other shop and ask them for BL models its most likely they dont have

BL is from USA, last time ray ban is from usa then company bankrupt or something and italy bought over...nowdays all the ray ban is from italy if i am not mistaken...this is what i learn when i was working part time la....from italy is label RB...its engraved to the lens at the right side if i am not mistaken...like a signature...need to look closely to notice...some prefer the USA models due the the lens quality thats why some people are still finding BL models but its super hard...limited old stock only left...

its not easy to know about grade AA and original...just like perfume got grade AA also...very hard to smell the difference since they smell the same. if you deal with ray ban many times then only you can know the difference by the look and feel of it...