The other day I saw a post by someone recommending getting prescription glasses from a Chinese site, Vooglam.
My prescription is exorbitantly expensive in the US. And if I don't want to be wearing the equivalent of coke bottles on my eyes the progressive bifocal and polycarbonate lenses are a must, which adds up even more. Add in the photo-gray or brown and you get near a thousand dollars out of pocket for glasses from one of the US monopolies.
I had found a site that had a limited range of frames and wasn't in the monopoly so I could get glasses for between $200-300. On the Chinese site I got them for $128. The frame selection was mostly hideous to an old woman like myself but I did find a pair I liked well enough. I paid for the cheapest shipping too, so it will be a month before I get them. But at about 15% of what they'd cost at Lenscrafters, it's worth the wait.
I find it obscene that people that need glasses the most because of really poor vision can't affordably access them without all kinds of internet gymnastics.
I fucking hate #capitalism with every fiber of my being.