Back to: 7: Finishing: The Optician’s Edge
Of course it all boils down to, Stock What Sells!
Note: This lesson has an individual print-out quiz!
Any shop that has an edger will stock some finished, un-cut, single vision lenses. You should know by now that you can stock SV lenses in a wide range of sphere and sphere/cylinder powers. Since the lens is round and uncut, you simply rotate and move the lens in the lensmeter so the Rx is in the proper place. These are known as single vision, finished, uncut lenses.
Lined multi-focals, progressives and many other lens typed require lab surfacing so are not able to be stocked in-house. Their design does not allow the lens to be rotated to match the 180 possible degrees of axis an Rx might call for. These are known as surfaced lenses.
Here are some things to think about when considering what lenses to stock:
- Your edger’s capabilities: Older edgers may be set up with a grinding wheel that will only cut some lens materials. Older edgers may also produce inconsistent results in some materials.
- Your customer base: If your practice is primarily aged 55+ you may have very little need for single-vision lenses.
- If you will offer same-day tinting/sunglasses: If your practice caters to a tourist or beach crowd you may want to stock plastic CR-39 lenses or a true tintable poly so you can tint in-house.
- Will you be offering AR coated lenses? If you offer AR coated lenses you will need to double your stock inventory.
- If you will be working with children: If you fill an Rx for a child under 18 you should be putting them in a polycarbonate lens. (Subject to individual law, vision insurance, and your business practices.)
In a small operation with a limited customer base they may stock as few as 120 different powers in pairs for a total of 240 lenses. A larger office with a steady customer base may stock 500 different powers for 1000 lenses, etc…
Plastic (CR-39) and polycarbonate, scratch coated, finished, un-cut lenses wholesale for approximately $3.00 each. This means that a larger store may have a lens inventory worth several thousand dollars. Add in high index lenses, and A/R coated lenses and an inventory may quickly reach the tens of thousands of dollars. Keep in mind that you cannot run what you do not have. But, you also don’t want thousands of dollars of inventory that never or rarely sells.
Stop a moment and think about that wholesale $6.00, or even $11.50, or heck even $18, pair of lenses.
Here is another place you can set yourself apart from online retailers.
When a regular customer has a problem with their basic SV lenses – fix it!
I don’t care if it was originally an insurance lab job!
If they are in a pinch and need new lenses then make them a new set of lenses.
Are you out of stock in scratch coated but you have the same Rx in AR coated?
Heck, make them in AR and tell them about what a great deal they are getting.
Better a sale today than money walking out the door…
Customer lost their progressives?
Are they ordering a new pair from you at $987.00?
Offer to make them a pair of SV readers or distance (or both) to get them by until the new progressives come in!
(keep some low end frames on hand for this sort of thing)
Total cost out of pocket = $30
Return on that $30 = priceless
Finished uncut lenses are available in a very wide range of materials and powers. When a lens falls outside the range you have in house you will need to order it. With overnight shipping it is not uncommon to order a pair of lenses late in the afternoon and receive them early the next morning.
Single vision un-cut lenses are available in a set range by each manufacturer. Sphere powers and cylinder powers are both limited by Rx (plus or minus) and by material. You will want the individual lens manufacturer availability charts for the ranges they provide as un-cuts.
They look like something like this:
Things to notice:
- It says Minus Cylinder at the top
- It tells you what lens style (SV & aspheric) and what material (1.67) the chart is for.
- This particular lens is available from +6.00 to -12.00 and out to 2.00 cylinder.
- It is available in 0.00 to -8.00 out to 3.00 cylinder.
- The 65mm, 70mm, 75mm and 70mm is the blank size that you will receive.
As the optician, it may be your responsibility to maintain the lens inventory so that you have lenses ready for sale. This may be a little confusing but with practice you will get used to it and be comfortable with it.
Lenses are usually ordered for stock as “half-pairs”. If I need to restock one single finished uncut – 2.00 – 0.50 lens I would order a, “Half pair of – 2.00 – 0.50”. If I need two of the same power I would order it as a pair.
Example: You sold and made four pairs of glasses today. You used the following lenses to fill the orders -0.25 -1.00, – 0.50 -0.50, -0.50 -0.50, -1.00 sph., -2.00 sph., -2.00 sph., -2.00 -0.25, -3.00 -0.75. The call to the lens company for restocking would be, “This is John from 87641 I need to place a stock lens order, poly, no AR, half pair -1.00, pair -0.50 – 0.50, half pair -0.25 – 1.00, pair -2.00, half pair -2.00 -0.25 and half pair -3.00 -0.75.”
Lens packages are usually marked with the Rx in both minus and plus cylinder forms. No axis will be marked since it will be your job to rotate the lens to the proper axis before blocking and cutting it for finishing. Sphere- only lenses like a -1.25 Sphere will be marked -1.25 0.00 it WILL NOT say sphere.
A stock range of powers IN PAIRS (CR 39 or Poly) might be:
Plano to – 4.00 spheres
Plano to – 4.00 sphero-cylinders in 0.25 steps up to -1.50 cylinder
Plano to +3.00 spheres
Plano to +3.00 sphero-cylinders in 0.25 steps up to -1.50 cylinder
Lens inventories should be maintained in a logical order. Be sure that drawers or boxes are clearly marked to avoid confusion and restocking mistakes. There may be other ways to do it but everywhere I have worked has used the following method:
0.00 through X.XX spheres 0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 etc.
0.00 with – 0.25 cylinder
0.25 with – 0.25 cylinder
0.50 with – 0.25 cylinder
0.75 with – 0.25 cylinder
1.00 with – 0.25 cylinder etc.
Lens Inventory Quiz
PDF file to download and print.
The Answer Key is in the lesson Finishing Single Vision.
Click to Print Lens Inventory Quiz