Designer eye wear is strictly in the eyes of the beholder.
Ask a dozen people what they’re wearing, and you’ll hear about 13 different designers. Everybody, it seems, is into the designer business, and why not?
The question, of course, is how much you pay.
The price will be right–designer eye wear at one-third to one-half price–at a new optical boutique called SEE that’s opening in Lincoln Park on Wednesday, says Richard Golden, president-chief executive of D.O.C. Optics Corp., its parent.
The timing couldn’t be better with the holiday season about to be in full swing, but it took a full year to get his 1,000-square-foot SEE boutique off the ground at the corner of Clark Street and Deming Place.
Golden has tested other SEE locations in Birmingham and Ann Arbor, both in Michigan, and in Columbus, Ohio.
“We liked what we found out from our clientele, and now we’re ready for an expansion program,” Golden said.
He’s still looking at a Gold Coast location after failing to find a site on Oak Street where there is plenty of optical competition. Previously, he looked at a location in a new Highland Park shopping center, but he wants to be in areas of the city where there are sophisticated, trendy shoppers, ranging from ages 20 to 50.
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Nationally, he’s eyeing the South Beach area of Miami Beach, the Georgetown area of the nation’s capital and Hollywood.
He’s targeted $1 million-plus in sales for the typical SEE store after it becomes established.
The parent, privately held D.O.C. Optics, of Southfield, Mich., has 115 stores in five Midwestern states and Florida, total sales topping $100 million. Some of the D.O.C. stores, a chain which competes against the likes of LensCrafters and Pearle Vision, can generate as much volume as $4 million annually, but these locations are in the 3,000- to 4,000-square-foot range.
Golden, a Michigan State graduate who started out selling time for a Detroit radio station, where he eventually became national sales manager, has gone to Italy and France over the last few years checking out sources for designer eye wear.
Buying directly from factories enables SEE, with quality fashion eye wear, to undercut the competition.
After his radio days, Golden was recruited by his father, Dr. Donald L. Golden, founder of D.O.C. Optics, to become the firm’s director of advertising in 1977. He subsequently became the boss. His father, a graduate of the Illinois College of Optometry, is chairman of D.O.C.
While SEE actually stands for Selective Eyewear Elements, Richard Golden views the enterprise as being equivalent to “seeing and being seen.”
His stint in selling radio time gave him considerable insight into retailing. He says: “When you work for a small station, you become almost like an ad agency in helping retailers come up with advertising plans.”
Spangler to Tenneco: Jim Spangler, recently director of global media relations at Arthur Anderson, became VP-global communications at Tenneco Automotive, a Lake Forest-based firm. He reports to Mark Frissora, president-CEO. Separately, Pat Willstatter, Midwest ad manager of McCall’s magazine, is the new president of the Chicago Magazine Association. She’ll serve a one-year term through December 2000. Also, Phase2Media, a Manhattan-based Internet ad rep and marketing firm, which recently opened a Chicago office at 333 W. Wacker Drive, added Mark Hermanson as a senior account executive. He reports to Tony Janowski, recently named director, Midwest sales. Janowski and Hermanson previously held key posts with U.S. News & World Report.
Strictly Personal: Birthday greetings to Donald R. Allen, 70 (Sigma Cos.); restaurateur Rick Bayless, 46; Meghan Blake, 27 (LaSalle Bank); Shannon O’Brien, 31 (US 99); Mike White, 45 (Miner Enterprises); Chuck Hutchcraft, 49 (Restaurants & Institutions magazine); photographer Robert F. Carl, 50; and Tom Carlstead, 48.
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