Besides coffee, if there is one industry NOT in short supply in the Hobart CBD, it's optometrists. There's at least 7 all within walking distance of the the Elizabeth St Mall/Cat and Fiddle arcade. Glasses are glasses, right? Well, sort of. With that many options, how you choose one?
Dust off your university calculus: Optometrists and retail optics exist on a 3 axis scale: cost vs service vs clinical optometry. You can also think of it this way: if the three standards, choose any two.
You won't (generally) find a cheap, highly clinical optometrist. Choose what's your preferred axis.
Island serves the Cheap, Decent service, low clinical model. Not to say the optometrists are bad, but they perform 20 minute eye tests that are all bulk billed. If you have a reasonable prescription and no significant issues, you'll be fine here. Complex issues get referred off. As far as the glasses go, Island Optical actually has more reach than you might think- they're pet of The Optical Superstore chain on the mainland (abbreviated to TOSS. Insert funny joke here about being a tosser).
Some big name brands do this thing where they rebadge their "B stock" or end of line run outs or one or two fashion cycles ago as a seperate brand- you'll find lots of these here, so you can get brand name quality at a really good price. It just won't have the "fancy" logo on them. read more
