I wear contact lenses on a daily basis, and also cycle through a pair of prescription glasses when at home.
I recently transferred to New York for an internship. Earlier, I used to stay in New Delhi, India.
I was struck by the cost difference for eye-wear between here and my home country. I have also been to other South-East Asian states and they all seem to have extremely reasonable rates for eye-wear.
For example, a 3 month pack of monthly contact lenses (-2.25 power in both eyes), would set me back by only about 10 to 12 USD.
A really good pair of prescriptive glasses would cost me 25-30 USD.
Perhaps more importantly, there is no need for any prescription to be provided in most of our developing countries. Anyone can simply walk into a shop and buy lenses or glasses. (In NY, I was slightly unnerved when I walked into an optician's store for the first time and they told me I needed to take an eye exam if I wanted to buy lenses). I ended up paying about 180 USD for 3 months of lenses, because it was urgent.
Every time after that, I have simply requested my friends who travel to New York from time to time to buy the same from an Asian market, put it in their suitcase (hardly takes up any space), and bring it over to me. One can easily save more than a hundred dollars this way. This is especially useful for those of us in college because there are so many who go back home during the summer or winter break.
tldr; Eyewear is too expensive here, just get your Asian friends to bring you stuff from their countries and save hundreds of dollars.
March 28, 2018 at 09:17PM
