Eye Care Centers of America is one of the biggest optical chain retailers in the USA. Currently Eye Care Center of America operates about 400 optical stores in 36 states under 11 different trade names. The most knows names include Vision World, Vision Works, Eyemasters and ValuVision etc.
Eye Care Center of America was founded in 1984 in San Antonio by an investing company. In 2 years, Eye Care Center of America ran 13 eyeglasses stores in Texas and Louisiana with the name of Eye Pro Express. In 1986, Eye Care Center of America bought 20/20 Eye Care Inc., and EyeMasters. By end of 1986, Eye Care Centers of America had up to 40 stores already. In late 1987, Eye Care Center of America was in turn acquired by Sears. In Sears’ hands, Eye Care Center of America continued to expand through acquisition. In 1993, Desai Capital purchased Eye Care Center of America from Sears. Through another 5 years of expansion, in 1998, a Boston company Thomas H. Lee Co., bought 90% of Eye Care Center of America for $325 million. More merging occurred after 1998, and by 2004, Eye Care Centers of America reached a scale of 375 stores in about 30 states under 11 trade names.
All the optical stores of Eye Care Centers of America operate well and rank No. 1 or 2 in the specific service regions. As the typical format of Eye Care Center of America, most of the stores have next door or in-house doctor, as well as the on-site processing lab to offer its customers with one-hour fitting service.
As the slogan of most of the optical stores under Eye Care Center of America, “Why pay more?” represents the company’s philosophy to serve its customers with heart by reducing the general cost of purchasing vision care products. “See better, Pay less” is what Eye Care Centers of America strives to achieve.