American Demographics

A region-by-region report on business and the economy

Welcome to EB's special report on American demographics. In this section, we look at the current state of business within each of the four U.S. regions—Northeast, South, Midwest, and West.

For this report, EB's editors tapped both optical and non-optical resources. Our goal? To bring you a balance of business, economic, fashion, and optical information about each region. While we researched many different business and economic resources for this report, most of the frame, lens, and edging statistics presented here are the result of just-released research conducted by Eyecare Business in April 2009.

For each of the regions, we address several subjects, including:

■ THE ECONOMY. One of the biggest factors is unemployment. As of June 1, close to 14 million Americans were unemployed, reports The New York Times, "and 100,000 people join their ranks each week. Eight states have double-digit unemployment rates."

■ REAL ESTATE. If there's good news here, it's that with vacancies up in most parts of the country, more landlords—especially those in malls—are agreeing to rent relief for some tenants.

One other plus: Many prime-location landlords are less likely to turn down smaller businesses—like optical—than before.

■ FASHION. "Today, trends come just a little bit faster on the coasts and even sometimes in Miami," says Paula Correri, a fashion editor with the Tobe Report, which is published by The Doneger Group, retail analysts and trend forecasters for the fashion industry.

■ FRAMES. Metal eyewear and second-pair sunwear are the strong frame stories for 2009. At a time when buyers are looking for their dollars to go as far as possible, the frames they opt for need to be strong and versatile.

In terms of materials, metal frames are still the top choice over plastics and rimless styles. For second pairs, the practical shopper appears once more, opting for sunwear over casual frames, clips, or professional eyewear and readers.

The good news is that the majority of patients are buying new eyewear rather than refilling their old styles at prices that are relatively flat from this year to last year.

■ LENSES. In the face of the economic downturn, eyecare practitioners are ramping up sales of premium lens materials and treatments, and increasingly positioning PALs as the presbyopic vision solution.

AR wins first-place honors as the most-sold lens treatment, and freeform processed lenses form nearly 20 percent of lens business.

Premium lens material sales stats put 1.67 on top, followed by Trivex, and then 1.60 lenses.

Across all regions, polycarbonate was written in as the "other" premium lens material, which raises an interesting point: Is poly still considered a premium product, or is it "the new standard plastic?"

■ EDGING. Nearly half (49 percent) of practices surveyed report they are still not edging in-house. Of those that do edge, however, 17 percent report they are finishing more jobs than last year, and only 7 percent are edging less.

A major barrier to increased in-house edging may be reluctance to take on premium lens' edging and their potentially costly challenges.

What's the number-one reason ECPs say they want their wholesale lab to process their jobs? Because they can take advantage of the warranties inherent with manufacturer and lab programs.