Anyone bought RX eye glasses from Costco — your experiences - Page 3 - RedFlagDeals.com Forums (2025)

tablo13 wrote: ↑How good are the contacts prices? There’s a local optometrist shop I go to that has contacts priced cheaper than any of the online stores. I take it up to online stores being expensive now, but is Costco much cheaper? I use CooperVision MyDay Toric.

I don’t remember the exact price but do remember that price in Costco was cheaper than in any other optometrist shop I have enquired within the area where I live including Walmart optical

syncro2017 wrote: ↑I don’t remember the exact price but do remember that price in Costco was cheaper than in any other optometrist shop I have enquired within the area where I live including Walmart optical

I think it’s worth trying to call the Costco optical department for a quote… Last year I called for an eye exam price and they did give me a price but told me to book online. It was an independent optometrist that seemed to handle every Costco optical department in Alberta. My only problem would be how good the optometrist would be. Some doctors can be hit or miss.

EDIT: Looks like I can book my eye exam separately with my usual optometrist... Contact lens fitting exams are booked separately with no fee at Costco. Just need to bring the glasses prescription.

EDIT 2: $120 for 90 packs of Acuvue Oasys 1-Day for Astigmatism at Costco , not sure if other places are cheaper.

Costco doesn't sell high end lenses at all. I went to Costco with a requirement for a high end high index wide field of view progressive lens with high add. They said Costco doesn't carry those and can't order them in either. They only target the lower to mid end of the market. The optician actually said that their very best offering would be considered mid-end compared to what other opticians sell. IOW, their best Essilor offering is roughly mid-tier compared to other Essilor and Shamir lens offerings.

This is fine with average prescriptions, but not for a good chunk of the population. It can make a big difference for peripheral vision for progressives for example, and the top tier ones have a wider effective field of view and are thinner. Also, I wonder about the quality of the coatings. I do a lot of work looking through a scope and I find with cheaper lenses the coatings wear off. While I haven't bought a Costo offering yet, a while back I bought the top house brand ones at Lenscrafters, and within a year the coatings were damaged. In contrast, my Nikons were still pristine after five years. I suspect the coatings on Costco's top tier should be fine though, as they are Essilor, but I wonder what your experiences are with this.

OTOH, if you have a relatively straightforward single vision prescription, and it's not too strong, Costco can provide you with a very good deal. I personally wouldn't trust them for the other end of the market though, especially since Costco opticians themselves say they can't really serve that market due to their lack of available offerings.

EugW wrote: ↑Costco doesn't sell high end lenses at all. I went to Costco with a requirement for a high end high index wide field of view progressive lens with high add. They said Costco doesn't carry those and can't order them in either. They only target the lower to mid end of the market. The optician actually said that their very best offering would be considered mid-end compared to what other opticians sell. IOW, their best Essilor offering is roughly mid-tier compared to other Essilor and Shamir lens offerings.

This is fine with average prescriptions, but not for a good chunk of the population. It can make a big difference for peripheral vision for progressives for example, and the top tier ones have a wider effective field of view and are thinner. Also, I wonder about the quality of the coatings. I do a lot of work looking through a scope and I find with cheaper lenses the coatings wear off. While I haven't bought a Costo offering yet, a while back I bought the top house brand ones at Lenscrafters, and within a year the coatings were damaged. In contrast, my Nikons were still pristine after five years. I suspect the coatings on Costco's top tier should be fine though, as they are Essilor, but I wonder what your experiences are with this.

OTOH, if you have a relatively straightforward single vision prescription, and it's not too strong, Costco can provide you with a very good deal. I personally wouldn't trust them for the other end of the market though, especially since Costco opticians themselves say they can't really serve that market due to their lack of available offerings.

I require high and high index Nikon lenses as well. When I was shopping last year I asked the optician in October and was told that my 1.74 High index was not available there.
I think it depends on the province?

Anyway I bought my glasses at a place called Canadian Glasses here in Mississauga. Very reasonable prices. They are very upfront about their pricing. They appear to be a warehouse as they have an on-site facility to make the glasses, at least their house brand that is.
This place also had a wider selection of frames compared to Costco.

Does Costco Optical do tinted lenses?

I've been trying to find a place that sells tinted lenses that are actually dark like you find with regular sunglasses. All the prescription tinted lenses I have bought from various online places have tints that are pretty light and sometimes have a red/purple hue. If anyone has any recommendations please share

sheyenne wrote: ↑@EugW This is interesting. If someone has never had high quality lenses, how would they know? I for example have no clue, unless I do a side-by-side comparison.

I am no expert, but here are my 2¢.

If you don't need high end lenses, in general the opticians won't recommend them even if they sell them. They are considerably more costly, and for weaker and more simple prescriptions, it's not necessary. So, for simpler weak to moderate strength single vision or progressive prescriptions, a mid-tier lens would be appropriate, and Costco sells them. As the Costco optician (in Ontario) told me, Costco's best lens offering is an Essilor model, and it corresponds to some of Essilor's mid-tier lenses that they offer to their other customers. (It's not the same branding though, and I get the impression from perusing the internet that Costco's best Essilor lenses *may* correspond with Essilor's mid-tier designs that are a couple of years old.)

The uber high end lenses offer some real advantages though:

1) High index: 1.7-1.74 index of refraction. This makes the lenses thinner and lighter, and more attractive looking if you have a strong prescription. Lower index lenses with strong prescriptions will often look like coke bottles, esp. with larger frames. Actually even if mid-tier lenses don't look like coke bottles, high index lenses can still look better because they are still thinner, especially at the edges of the lenses with stronger prescriptions.

2) High quality coatings. The top tier lenses usually include very good coatings as part of the cost, although you can sometimes get even higher end coatings, and you can get most of these with mid-tier lenses too. However, for the latter, it may add more to the cost than it does with the top tier lenses, because the top tier ones usually already include the cost to a certain extent. What I've noticed though is that for some lower end brands, even their "top tier" coatings just suck. Don't get low end brands unless your budget is very tight or your needs are very simple.

3) Newer lens designs. It's not just about the lens material and coatings, but also about the design of the optics. Not all lenses are shaped and designed the same even if they use the same materials. For simple single-vision prescriptions, it often doesn't matter as much but for complex progressive prescriptions, it can be a big benefit, with wider fields of view, more customized options for types of work environments, and lower aberration in peripheral vision. For example one common complaint for progressive lenses is that people have to look relatively straight on to get a proper clear image when reading a book or looking at a computer screen. If they just glance at something at the periphery of the visual field, it's all blurry. Higher end lens designs widen that clear visual field area. BTW, a lot of descriptions talk about aspheric designs. I would have thought that these days all lenses are aspheric, but from what I gather, that still isn't the case. The cheap lenses may not be aspheric, which affects image quality and looks.

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Anyhow, after my visit to Costco and being told they don't sell higher end high index lenses, I got some quotes elsewhere for what I needed. One store offered me a top-of-the-line Essilor lens for $890. Another store offered me a top-of-the-line Shamir (which is owned by Essilor) for $830. I didn't get a quote on Nikon on Zeiss this time, but the last time a couple of years ago I did, and they were in the $900-$1200 range IIRC. Remember, this is just the cost of the lenses, without the frames, and tax is on top of this.

I ended up getting the Shamir, not because of the "lower" cost, but because the particular type of lens I got (Shamir Autograph Intelligence) had just recently been updated and had excellent reviews on some opticians' message boards for this particular usage. I won't bother linking Shamir's website for this lens though, because it's full of useless gobbledygook. What a terrible website. It provides no useful information at all, as it is just full of buzzwords and reads like a 3 am infomercial. Zeiss's website descriptions for their lenses are much more informative, even if they still read as advertising.

I just got my glasses updated. I'm on progressive lenses because of my age-related presbyopia. High diopter and high add, using 1.74 ultra high-index Essilor Varilux X progressive lenses at a boutique shop for CAD$960. Frame cost is on top of that. Ouch!

Presbyopia means that I need various levels of correction for different types of viewing, hence the progressive lenses.

Near - Reading glasses: 11-18 inches
Intermediate - Computer glasses (near range): Up to 3 feet
Intermediate - Workspace glasses (mid range): Up to 14 feet
Distance - To infinity and beyond!

With my new glasses which are more standard progressives, my intermediate range viewing area is just way too small now:

So, I need to get computer glasses as a second pair for work at my desk:

My regular shop offered me 1.67 high index Essilor lenses for $630. I'm not sure what specific model, but I think they may have had the top end Crizal coating.

I went to Costco and they offered me 1.67 high index "Distinctive" brand multifocal lenses for $150. Coating is the next step down from Crizal. It was going to be $30 extra to use my existing older frames, so I instead just spent $90 to get one of the frames from the store, so total cost $240 including frame. I'm not sure of the exact range of the computer glasses they are selling but the optician said it would provide good clarity up to about 3 feet so that's the near range type. They also did say there is a small sliver at the top of the lens for distance.

I'm hoping that these new lenses are decent, but I wonder if there might be more chromatic aberration and if the coating might wear off more quickly.

BTW, my regular progressives are great in the car for driving. Big viewing area for distance, and decent viewing area for reading - dashboard and controls. However, as mentioned, they are terrible for the computer. I sit with my computer screen anywhere from about 20-30 inches away, usually around 20-24.

Cheap Cat wrote: ↑Last year I went to Costco to buy glasses and they said they couldn't make my lenses as I needed a 1.74 high index lens. I had a higher prescription before and had always had 1.67 index lenses. I asked several people there and was told that they wouldn't even consider making my lenses. Other places quoted me on the 1.67 index lenses. I ended up going to Canadian Glasses and ordered the 1.74 index lens figuring if Costco wouldn't make it, there must be a reason why. I did ask about the difference between 1.67 and 1.74 as it didn't appear to be much difference based on the information I read. They put my order in but after checking with the lab they called me back and said that there would be little benefit with my prescription going with 1.74 so I got the cheaper 1.67. I paid more for my lenses there than I would have at Costco so it pisses me off that Costco wouldn't make my glasses.

FWIW, not all 1.67 lenses are the same. Different tiers use different design algorithms, different coatings, and potentially even slightly different materials.

It seems that the priciest models not only have the best coatings, they also have the best lens designs. ie. It seems that they probably intentionally keep older less advanced lens designs around to create different price tiers. It's also possible that some of the newest lens designs require newer production equipment, even if using the same material.

Costco themselves told me that although they sell Essilor lenses, they have no access to the most recent highest end lens designs, and they don't have access to Essilor's best Crizal coatings either. Basically Costco only sells lower to mid-end options. To get the top end options you have to go elsewhere, even at 1.67. I specifically asked about coating longevity for my line of work and the optician said it might not last as long as Crizal under heavy usage, but then he reminded me that you could buy these Costco lenses four times over for the prices of the Crizal coated lenses elsewhere.

tl;dr:

Refractive index is just one of many factors that determine lens cost. Yes, top tier name brand lenses are overpriced, but they are indeed often better, even at the same refractive index as lower priced Costco options.

Has anyone purchased transitional lenses at Costco?

I have visited other eyewear stores, and they claim that Costco utilizes transitional lenses of low quality. Additionally, they assert that Costco's lenses take several minutes to adjust, unlike theirs, which only take seconds.

sheyenne wrote: ↑Has anyone purchased transitional lenses at Costco?

I have visited other eyewear stores, and they claim that Costco utilizes transitional lenses of low quality. Additionally, they assert that Costco's lenses take several minutes to adjust, unlike theirs, which only take seconds.

Lol … BS

Costco sells brandname Transitions
It’s right there on their website = https://www.costco.ca/optical.html

My last few pairs of glasses have come from Costco
And my transitions are awesome

I got the regular type … not the Drivewares

Very happy with them

My guess … other places will tell you stuff in hopes you’ll buy from them
Brandname optical items … lenses, frames, etc
Have a HUGE MARK UP = Profit Margin
So other places have a lot of reason to want to swing you in their direction vs cheaper Costco

BTW … in August Costco typically runs some great eyeglass promos … for BACK TO SCHOOL
IIRC their Transitions special last year was Buy 1 and get the second set $ 100 off
Plus it STACKED with their frame sale

So keep an eye on the Costco Monthly Flyers

@PointsHubby

Thanks!

I called around today. it appears that some other eyewear shops are praising Essilo lenses for their quick light adaptation. However, they may also be critical about Costco's in-house brand of Progressives: "Kirkland HD Digital Progressive lenses".

Additionally, Costco offers another alternative known as "Accolade Freedom 4.0 HD" Progressive Lenses (see attached image). I have yet to reach someone at Costco who can give me an approximate price quote and the differences.

sheyenne wrote: ↑@PointsHubby

Thanks!

I called around today. it appears that some other eyewear shops are praising Essilo lenses for their quick light adaptation. However, they may also be critical about Costco's in-house brand of Progressives: "Kirkland HD Digital Progressive lenses".

Additionally, Costco offers another alternative known as "Accolade Freedom 4.0 HD" Progressive Lenses (see attached image). I have yet to reach someone at Costco who can give me an approximate price quote and the differences.

There are many types of eyeglass lenses & lens treatments

Progressives are a type of bifocal … or multi focal lens to aid someone in seeing various depths of fields without changing or removing glasses

Transitions are a type of lens that change in colour / shading dependent on the light conditions … so one can see better

Personally … I had a lot of issues when I first tried out Progressive Bifocal Lenses (regular … not transitions) as I am one of those people who felt sea sick when wearing them … so I had to go back to wearing 2 sets of glasses … one for distance, and another for reading

I only ever tried once …

And they were glasses that I bought @ Costco

So I cannot say if had anything to do with the quality of the Progressive Bifocals that Costco sells or not. But hey … it might have been

Every other prescription I’ve bought there over the years worked well for me.

* NOTE - Costco evidently does have a return policy on prescription eyeglasses … but they may want you to somehow validate that the prescription is wrong … or that the lenses don’t work for you. I don’t know. I kept my wacky progressive bifocals … in hopes that eventually I’d adapt to them cuz so many others I know … love theirs. Never happened for me.

PointsHubby wrote: ↑There are many types of eyeglass lenses & lens treatments

Progressives are a type of bifocal … or multi focal lens to aid someone in seeing various depths of fields without changing or removing glasses

Transitions are a type of lens that change in colour / shading dependent on the light conditions … so one can see better

Personally … I had a lot of issues when I first tried out Progressive Bifocal Lenses (regular … not transitions) as I am one of those people who felt sea sick when wearing them … so I had to go back to wearing 2 sets of glasses … one for distance, and another for reading

I only ever tried once …

And they were glasses that I bought @ Costco

So I cannot say if had anything to do with the quality of the Progressive Bifocals that Costco sells or not. But hey … it might have been

Every other prescription I’ve bought there over the years worked well for me.

* NOTE - Costco evidently does have a return policy on prescription eyeglasses … but they may want you to somehow validate that the prescription is wrong … or that the lenses don’t work for you. I don’t know. I kept my wacky progressive bifocals … in hopes that eventually I’d adapt to them cuz so many others I know … love theirs. Never happened for me.

Thanks again!

I couldn't adjust to the regular prescription pair of glasses I got from Costco, one for reading and the other for driving. They made me feel ill, so I switched to generic readers and managed with regular sunglasses for driving. Another optometrist said the previous prescription was too strong.

It seems then that progressive lenses aren't suitable for me as I likely might experience the same issue as you. I was also told I'd have to wear them every day for at least 6 weeks to adjust.

This time around, I'll need to be more mindful of the return period, which includes a visit to my optometrist. My insurance only allows $400 or $320 maximum reimbursement at 80%.

sheyenne wrote: ↑Thanks again!

I couldn't adjust to the regular prescription pair of glasses I got from Costco, one for reading and the other for driving. They made me feel ill, so I switched to generic readers and managed with regular sunglasses for driving. Another optometrist said the previous prescription was too strong.

It seems then that progressive lenses aren't suitable for me as I likely might experience the same issue as you. I was also told I'd have to wear them every day for at least 6 weeks to adjust.

This time around, I'll need to be more mindful of the return period, which includes a visit to my optometrist. My insurance only allows $400 or $320 maximum reimbursement at 80%.

Personally … I think when it comes to writing scripts for near & far distance they are 2 different sciences

I’ve never had an issue for any glasses for distance over the last 50 or so years. They’ve all worked well for me.

When I went to add on readers in my late 50s … is when I started to experience problems. Starting with those progressive bifocals.

So this last time … I opted for separate glasses. Buying the ones for distance (mostly driving) @ Costco with the Transition Lenses and I love them.

As my reading prescription was within the generic boundaries … I decided to go with drugstore readers for those. I bought them online. Assuming everything would be ok there too.

I was wrong … the reading pair prescription was indeed too strong for me … as per the script written.

So I ended up sending them back … and heading out to a drugstore to try in person. Found the next level was better for me … so that’s what I’m now using. Not the script the Optometrist originally wrote.

Lol, getting old sucks.
Things change.

We now have to be far more proactive about our health issues … and speak up … or look for alternatives that work for us as individuals I find more often.

Just a heads up Costco will no longer put prescription lenses in serengeti frames. Before that they would not allow putting prescriptions in polarized rayban sunglasses.

Seems the free ride is over, used to be able to get prescription clear or transitions in these frames and get to keep then original lenses - easy swap to regular sunglasses once I get new pair of regular glasses. Insurance companies must have hated that.

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EugW wrote: ↑I just got my glasses updated. I'm on progressive lenses because of my age-related presbyopia. High diopter and high add, using 1.74 ultra high-index Essilor Varilux X progressive lenses at a boutique shop for CAD$960. Frame cost is on top of that. Ouch!

Presbyopia means that I need various levels of correction for different types of viewing, hence the progressive lenses.

Near - Reading glasses: 11-18 inches
Intermediate - Computer glasses (near range): Up to 3 feet
Intermediate - Workspace glasses (mid range): Up to 14 feet
Distance - To infinity and beyond!

With my new glasses which are more standard progressives, my intermediate range viewing area is just way too small now:

Standard-Progressives.jpg

So, I need to get computer glasses as a second pair for work at my desk:

Workspace-progressives.jpg

My regular shop offered me 1.67 high index Essilor lenses for $630. I'm not sure what specific model, but I think they may have had the top end Crizal coating.

I went to Costco and they offered me 1.67 high index "Distinctive" brand multifocal lenses for $150. Coating is the next step down from Crizal. It was going to be $30 extra to use my existing older frames, so I instead just spent $90 to get one of the frames from the store, so total cost $240 including frame. I'm not sure of the exact range of the computer glasses they are selling but the optician said it would provide good clarity up to about 3 feet so that's the near range type. They also did say there is a small sliver at the top of the lens for distance.

Screen-Shot-2016-08-17-at-11.jpg

I'm hoping that these new lenses are decent, but I wonder if there might be more chromatic aberration and if the coating might wear off more quickly.

BTW, my regular progressives are great in the car for driving. Big viewing area for distance, and decent viewing area for reading - dashboard and controls. However, as mentioned, they are terrible for the computer. I sit with my computer screen anywhere from about 20-30 inches away, usually around 20-24.

I did not like the $150 Costco "Distinctive" 1.69 index multifocal computer lenses (3-foot range). Distance range is limited (of course) and the field of view width-wise was limited as well. I also tried an expanded range version and didn't like those either, again because of the poor field of view.

This year I stuck with my optometrist's own shop and got their top-of-the-line Zeiss 1.74 index progressive office desk lenses (advertised for a 7-ft range), and they are in a totally different league, with a much wider field of view. However, they were $560 or almost 4X the cost of the Costco lenses, but IMO they're absolutely worth it, at least with my high prescription. This price includes their best quality coating, DuraVision Platinum, but I did NOT opt for the extra $70 DuraVision BlueProtect coating. Interestingly the DuraVision Platinum already includes some blue filtering, and you can see a light blue reflection on the lenses (when not wearing them), and it does make things look somewhat warmer than my old glasses.

I decided to stay away from Shamir computer and workspace lenses, since my other Shamir lenses' coating starting wearing off. Their range options were different BTW, at 5-foot and 10-foot and for some reason those options weren't recommended by my opticians.

With the 7-foot range Zeiss lenses I can actually see well enough to wear these around the house. While I wouldn't want to watch a TV 12 feet away, objects are at that distance are focused enough to not be a major problem. It's just not recommended for driving and reading road signs.

Since Kits was mentioned a couple times, does anyone know who makes the kits enhanced progressive lenses?
https://www.kits.ca/progressive-lenses

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