I get most of my glasses from America’s Best. The low price is contingent on you selecting low-end frames and waiting a bit for the lenses to be ground out overseas and shipped to the US. It’s not a “glasses in an hour” operation. You will pay more for higher-end or designer frames, lens options, faster turn-around.
That said, the operation is pretty good. Their eye exams are thorough (including glaucoma tests). You’ll pay more for exams if you’re interested in both glasses and contacts, but otherwise the prices are charged fairly (which is free if you commit to buying glasses from them). They will hard-sell you on their membership plan (yearly exams for free and frames/contacts at a discount, which is dandy if you opt for disposable contacts), a decent deal if you want to do yearly exams/upgrades. When I had eye surgery a few years ago, the eye clinic gave me glasses/contacts prescriptions to match, and AB accepted them with no hassle or charge. I happen to prefer the low-end frames (I wear the women’s “Attitudes” frames, “Attitudes #6” currently, though being a guy), and only get new prescriptions every few years, so don’t opt for membership, and I still manage to escape with a couple of pairs of glasses for cheap every few years, plus a drawerful of a few-years-off glasses in case I need a spare pair.
A few things: they can adjust the fit of thermoplastic frames to aid in comfort on the spot, metal frames may be an issue. My favored frames are thermoplastic, so I’ve had no issue there. That said, I’ve had metal frames adjusted for free as well (arms needed to be spread out and bowed, nose pads replaced).
Getting special lenses costs more, but since you’re getting two (or more) pairs at once, it’s not a big deal to opt out. Unless you’ll be carrying your glasses in pockets the majority of the time, stuff life scratch-proofing isn’t terribly necessary. I get basic plastic lenses with nothing else; advances in glasses over the decades means my myopic, astigmatic eyes don’t need Coke-bottle lenses that warp everything.
If you’ve never worn corrective eyewear before, be aware that there is a learning/adapting curve. New eyewear almost always introduces seeming distortions in depth-perception, etc. You will adapt in short order, but it’s a trip to spend the first few days noticing that everything seems to be fore-shortened, or that parallax seems different.
There’s also a physical adaptation to wearing glasses. Your ears will probably hurt for a while, as well as the sides of your head and bridge of your nose. (Don’t forget the place bending your frames at request to deal with things like the glasses’ arms being too tight for the width of your head, or nose pads pinching you.) You’ll get used to it eventually, like wearing a watch.
Finally, America’s Best isn’t the only place with good, cheap deals on glasses. Outside of the mall behemoths like LensCrafters ($300, but we have glasses ready in an hour!), many places now are cheap. Walmart optical is about as cheap (and also give free minor repairs and adjustments, even if they didn’t sell the original pair), local chains (like my local Eyeglass World offer the same deals), Warby Parky (online, a bit more expensive, but 1/3 of the cost of 1980s eyeglass vendors, and with a pretty unique selection of frames and try-out programs so you can find frames you like). And I so love the low cost compared to when I was a kid, when you had one pair that cost half your parent’s monthly salary and needed to be protected. Or even my first pair of $300 contacts, bought when I made $3.50 an hour. I currently have six pairs (two current) and a few boxes of contacts for less than my single childhood pair cost, even after inflation.
And remember that you can get your exam done outside of the chain if you are wary; hit your favorite or most trusted optometrist, get the exam and prescription, then go bargain shopping at the vendors. I hit up Warby Parker and 1-800 Contacts to use my optometrist’s post-surgery prescriptions.
