Opticians have eye on industry trends

James Alfred, left, and son Fred Alfred say their Attleboro optical business has been able to compete with larger chains partly because they've kept up to date with eyeglass technology and fashion.
James Alfred, left, and son Fred Alfred say their Attleboro optical business has been able to compete with larger chains partly because they've kept up to date with eyeglass technology and fashion.

Pleasant Optical Co. Inc.


Owner: Fred L. Alfred


Location: 174 Pleasant St., Attleboro


Type of Business: Optical products


Employees: Two (family members)


Annual Revenues: WND


 



Did you know that, not so long ago, your eyeglasses could catch fire?



That’s one of the arcane bits of knowledge you pick up when, like Jim Alfred, you’ve been in the optical game for the past half century.



The longtime (now former) proprietor of the Pleasant Optical Co. said when he broke into the business, eyeglass frames were made of a nitrate composition that could catch on fire if exposed to a flame.



Now, of course, eyeglass frame technology, like everything else in the optical business, has changed dramatically. Today’s frames are made of high-grade stainless steel or, better still, titanium – “the lightest, strongest metal in the world.”



Similarly, lenses have improved.



“I started with glass lenses,” Alfred said. “Now we use 10 different materials that are safer, thinner and lighter. And they’re impact-resistant. Plastic is 10 times stronger than glass in terms of impact damage.”



James Alfred is the elder half of a father-son team that owns and operates the venerable Attleboro optical business. Son Fred, 48, is now officially in charge, while his dad, 75, has throttled back to a four-day week and keeps an eye out for someone to replace him.



Pleasant Optical is located in a building which also houses the office of Dr. Peter Fay, an ophthalmologist who, coincidentally, was also part of a father-son team, having worked with his father, Dr. Thomas Fay, before the latter retired.



Pleasant Optical would seem to be a bit of an anachronism in a day when companies like LensCrafters and Pearle Vision seem to dominate the industry. But the Alfreds contend that they’re doing quite well, despite the ubiquity of the chains. The father-son team maintains that they can outdo the big guys in terms of both service and product.



A recent report in Boston Consumers’ Checkbook supports that claim. The Checkbook is an independent, nonprofit magazine that is “dedicated to helping Boston area consumers find … high-quality, reasonably priced services … ”



In its summer/fall 2003 issue, the publication ranked Pleasant Optical among the top 10 opticians among the 35 listed in the region south of Route 128. The Attleboro company earned 93 percent ratings for reliability and promptness of service, and 92 percent in overall quality.



Besides reliable service, which attracts repeat business, operations like Pleasant Optical benefit from much lower overhead than the chains can manage at their mall locations, the Alfreds contend.



The Alfreds, father and son, both entered the optical business by way of lengthy apprenticeships. It seems that Jim’s father was the head of a DeMolay International chapter (organization of young men) in Brockton back in the ’40s, and was often asked to recommend promising young men for jobs in the community.



“An optometrist called and said he wanted a youngster to repair equipment,” Alfred recalled.



Still in high school, Alfred took the job, began repairing optical equipment, and learned how to grind lenses. His mentor offered to give him further training, and Jim Alfred stayed with him for the next eight years. When, at that juncture, opticians began to require licenses, Jim passed the test. At about that time, he went to Attleboro to work with another ophthalmologist, Dr. Donald McCann.



“I ground all of his lenses – some of them at home,” Alfred said.



It was then that son Fred began to apprentice with his father. They’ve been a team ever since.



For Fred Alfred, optical work held a special appeal from the beginning.



“I watched my father grind lenses from the time I was 8 or 10 years old,” he said. “I thought it was both a challenge and rewarding to help people with their sight.”



The Alfreds agree that trends continually change across the full spectrum of the optical industry: Their advertising copy these days features products like titanium frames “with aerodynamic design that eliminates screws and hinges.”



Contact lenses, they added, are beginning to fall out of favor as users discover that they really need two lenses – one for reading, the other for distance vision. And bifocal contact lenses “have not been successful,” Jim Alfred said.



As for styles, the elder Alfred said women, primarily, are interested in changing styles, but hastened to add that today’s younger men are also style conscious.



Today’s eyeglasses, he said, are light and narrow.



“Eight years ago, they were monsters – heavy and hard to center.”



But fashion being as capricious as it is, “the big lenses may come back again,” he conceded.



The Alfreds, father and son, keep up with changing fashions – and technology – by attending trade shows and dealing with salesmen who visit them and show them optical products from throughout the world.



Jim Alfred pointed out that opticians are required to attend continuing education classes regularly to remain in good standing.


“But I’ve reached a plateau,” he said. “At 75, I don’t have to go anymore.”


 


Dick Sherman is a contributing writer to PBN.


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