[Neidermeyer]

I don’t wear contacts but I just have to say this is becoming ridiculous ... Exactly how much less can a dime sized sliver of plastic be made to make it economical to produce it halfway around the world and then ship it?

[Kirkwood]

The lens itself is nothing. It is the cost of the plant and the people to run it that is reduced by making these outside the US. For many years, contact lenses were made outside the US - this is nothing new.

[John Leland 1789]

“I don’t wear contacts but I just have to say this is becoming ridiculous ... Exactly how much less can a dime sized sliver of plastic be made to make it economical to produce it halfway around the world and then ship it?” -—Neidermeyer

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It is about money, and getting access to markets. I am writing from Shanghai. In no city anywhere in the USA have I seen so many eyewear shops. It seems like they put them in every fifth to ninth storefront in Shanghai. Chain shops and independent shops. Lenscrafters is here, and several other American chains (if they are still owned by Americans!). Then there are British, European, Australian, Japanese and Korean eyewear chain shops.

I am assuming that China would not open up the market unless the companies could put a whole lot of Chinese to work in factories making eyewear. So perhaps the companies thought, if we have to open Chinese factories in order to sell in their market, then WHY keep our American factories open? Why not just make everything in China; it’s light and easy to ship those little plastic slivers to the USA, and the overhead and labor is cheaper overall in China.

That’s what I THINK is happening. I’m not in business in China; I have other projects going. But I THINK that the size of the individual item is not as important as cheaper overhead and access to the Chinese market for eyewear products.