Costco blog/discussion forum

If you have problems seeing and need glasses, you need to go through three steps. First, an examination by a doctor. Second, choose and buy the frames. Third, choose a lens material and have the prescribed lenses mounted into the frames. You can do all three of these steps at different places, of you can combine them at a single location, like your local Costco Warehouse.

Consumer Reports did a study of eyeglass purchasing in November 2006 and concluded that Costco's Optical department was the best for most people. Costco, along with several other stores, offered the lowest prices. (Lenscrafters charged four to five times the price of Costco for similar lenses.) But Costco also offered some of the best service, on par with small optical shops and doctor's offices. These small optical shops and physician offices, however, were usually much more expensive than Costco Optical.

Consumer Reports found Costco lacking in two areas, speed and selection of frames. If you are not in a hurry, they suggest ordering your frames online (from Frames Direct for instance) and then ordering the lenses at Costco and asking them to install their lenses in your frames. Costco will charge you an additional $20 or so for this service.

Costco has a handy Face Shape Guide that can tell you whether it is best to order geometric, rounded, oval, navigator, square, aviator, or rectangular frames based on whether your face is oval, square, round, or triangular.

They also offer different lens materials, in order from thinnest to thickest they have 1.67 high index, polycarbonate aspherics, polycarbonate, and hard resin.

If you don't want to get glasses, you can get many different brands of contact lenses at Costco including Acuvue, Acuvue 2, Oasys, Acuvue Advance, 1-Day Acuvue, Soflens 38, Ultraflex II, Focus Night&Day, and Focus Dailies.