Luxottica controls the frame, the lens lab, the insurance, and the retail store

EssilorLuxottica owns Ray-Ban, Oakley, LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, Target Optical, the EyeMed vision insurance plan, and Essilor lens manufacturing — meaning one company controls the brand you want, the store you buy it in, the lab that grinds your lenses, and the insurance that supposedly gives you a discount. A frame that costs $4-8 to manufacture in China retails for $300-500 because there is no competitive pressure at any stage of the value chain to lower prices. Independent optical shops cannot negotiate comparable wholesale prices because Luxottica's vertically integrated supply chain undercuts them while simultaneously setting the retail price floor. This monopoly persists because the FTC approved the Essilor-Luxottica merger in 2018 with minimal conditions, and the optical supply chain is opaque enough that consumers blame 'expensive lenses' rather than a single conglomerate extracting margin at every step.