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?