Bix may have the answer: a near-monopoly by Luxoticca.
I’ve had glasses since I was in the third grade. Living as a kid in Duncan, Oklahoma, we’d drive down to Wichita Falls, Texas, for glasses costing $26.95, if memory serves. Now I pay about $500, and $300 for my kids.
Inflation over the last 40 years accounts for some of that, no doubt. But still…

