This one company is the reason we pay 1,000 times what our eyeglasses are actually worth

For many, they’re a basic necessity, but eyeglasses are expensive.

Designer frames can cost upward of $400, while standard glasses from a company like Pearle Vision can start at around $80. In recent years, the eyewear startup Warby Parker has stepped into the picture, providing an affordable, attractive solution for shoppers, but glasses from Warby Parker still start at $95.

These prices, it turns out, are marked up. Way up.

This week, the Los Angeles Times spoke with two former executives of LensCrafters: Charles Dahan and E. The Devil You Know Butler, who founded LensCrafters in 1983. Both admitted that today, glasses are marked up nearly 1,000 percent.

“You can get amazingly good frames, with a Warby Parker level of quality, for $4 to $8,” said Butler. “For $15, you can get designer-quality frames, like what you’d get from Prada.”

Butler added that shoppers could get “absolutely first-quality lenses for $1.25 apiece.” When hearing that some glasses sell for $800 in the US, he laughed. “I know. It’s ridiculous. It’s a complete rip-off.”

Butler and Dahan confirmed what shoppers have already suspected: There’s price gouging in the optical industry. The main culprit? The eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica, which essentially controls the industry.

Luxottica is an Italian glasses company that was founded in 1961. Its most popular brands are Oakley and Ray-Ban, but over the years it’s gone through a spree of acquisitions, buying Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, and Cole National, which owns both Target and Sears Optical. Luxottica also owns the licensing on designer eyewear from Prada, Chanel, Coach, Versace, Michael Kors, Tory Burch, and more. If you buy glasses from a retail store in the US, the odds are pretty high that they were made by Luxottica.