Type Subsidiary Website www.usvision.com Parent organization Refac Optical Group | Industry Retail Headquarters New Jersey, United States | |
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Key people William A. Schwartz Jr. Products Eyewear, Contact Lenses Founded 1972, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States | ||
U.S. Vision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Refac Optical Group, is an international optometric dispensary chain. The vast majority of these locations are leased spaces in large department stores, such as J.C. Penney, Boscov's, and The Bay. As of May 8, 2007, 500 locations in 47 states and Canada are in operation, consisting of licensed departments and freestanding stores. In early 2008, due to an acquisition of BJ's Optical Centers located in many BJ's Wholesale Clubs, that number has grown to approximately 650 locations. U.S. Vision deals mainly in prescription eyewear, contact lenses, and optometry offices.
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History
In 1885, William Well and Charles Ochs opened a retail optical store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that is still in operation today. With this as a beginning, other optical locations were purchased, starting the first optical store chain in the United States. In the early 1970s the company purchased Wall and Ochs, combined it with a manufacturing facility in Blackwood, New Jersey, and named the new combination of manufacturing and sales U.S. Vision.
Location names
U.S. Vision, being a parent company, is known under many different names throughout the U.S. and Canada. Primarily operating out of leased areas in large department stores such as Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Lord & Taylor, Kohl's, J.C. Penney, Sears, Boscov's, Carson Pirie Scott, and Marshall Fields, and named by simply adding Optical to the host store's name (exp: J.C. Penney Optical, The Vision Center at Saks Fifth Avenue).