Afternoon, Pierre. Adam!
It's been too long. Is that a new pocket square? New to you. How's Madeleine? She agreed to a second date. I told you she was
sweet on you. And how are your loved ones? My turtles?
They're quite well. What do you got for me? Well, we have a number of
new styles to show you. So many styles.
How do I choose? Ooh, flirty. Classic. Tre fashionable. Daring 'do. Actually, all these frames
are exactly the same. Ahh! I'm sorry,
she's a contacts person. She doesn't understand us. These are clearly
different brands. No, they're not. I'm the Adam now. Think about this
for a second. Even the most basic pair of
glasses can cost around $400. That's as much as my phone. Haven't you ever wondered why
a simple piece of plastic is the same price as this
miracle of technology? No, and you can't make me! I love glasses too much! Uugghh! Ooh, the power
of knowledge. 80% of glasses
and sunglasses brands are controlled by a single
company, Luxottica. But that would give them
a virtual monopoly over
the entire industry. Bingo. And because
they control both the luxury brands
and the cheap brands, they can charge whatever
they want for either. No, I'm not seeing this. I'm sorry.
You have to. Luxottica uses that power to drive up the price of
glasses for everybody, sometimes charging
as much as 20 times
what they cost to produce. All right. And it's not just
prescription glasses. Ray-Bans used to be
bargain mass-market sunglasses worn by everyone from
jazz men to presidents to president jazz man. But in 1999,
Luxottica bought the brand and raised the price to over
$150 a pair, quintuple what they were. Maybe they're five times better
at banning rays now? Get out of here, ray!
You're banned! Oh, the ideas your hair has. 70% of Luxottica's brands come
from the exact same factory. This one's Prada. This one's nada. Hey. This is just like what you did
with clothing outlets. Ooh, this is karma. I hate this. Glasses are really
important to me. They're, like,
40% of my personality. Oh, suck it up. You know, we don't have to
teleport everywhere. We can walk
around the store. Why? Well, I'm a smart boy,
and I know what to do. I'll just go to
a different store. Good luck!
What is happening? It's simple. Luxottica also owns almost all
the major glasses stores, too. Including LensCrafters,
Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Target Optical
and Sunglass Hut. Which means that the few brands
that they don't own are forced to obey
their demands. When Oakley tried to dispute
Luxottica's pricing, Luxottica retaliated by dropping
them from all their stores. Oakley's stock price collapsed and Luxottica swooped in
and bought them out. Luxottica has so much power, that when a company didn't
play by their rules, they brought them to the brink
of destruction then took over that company. I've never felt bad for someone
wearing Oakleys before. Oh, I still get plenty of
action. Wow, I know you're not
the bad guy, but you are real unlikeable. Whatever, tits. Uhh! But I have to wear glasses. I don't have a choice. Good point. For 75% of Americans, glasses
are a medical necessity. Too bad Luxottica also owns the second-largest eye insurance
company in America. That means it's possible
for your optometrist, your insurance company, the factory that makes
your frames and the store that
sells them to you to all be owned by
the same company. So they can just rip us off? Everything is worth what people
are ready to pay, eh? Okay, that's awfully cynical. Yeah, and it's also
a real thing that their CEO said
to "60 Minutes." The fact is,
most of these glasses could just be
labeled Luxottica, but they're not, because what Luxottica
is really selling you is the illusion of choice. Et tu, Pierre? I'm sorry, Adam. I'm not who you think I am. No! So, what'd you think
of my lesson? pretty cool, huh?
