NEW YORK—While the national average for gross revenue at ECP locations declined sharply last week, Nov. 22-28, due to the Thanksgiving holiday, its index level still fell right between where this optical category was at this same point in time (Week 48) during both 2019 (1 index point above) and last year (2 index points below), according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker. All optical categories experienced large decreases in sales last week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
 
When comparing last week with the previous week, Nov. 15-21, declines ranged from -25 index points for contact lenses to -35 index points for gross revenue. All optical sales categories’ sharp declines last week brought them far below an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker.
 
All categories range from the closest, albeit 29 index points below 100, at 71 index points for gross revenue to 39 index points below 100 at 61 index points for contact lenses. All categories are expected to rebound to some degree during the week following Thanksgiving, according to the Practice Performance Tracker.
 
Jobson Optical Research selected 1,500 optical locations that have been operating and reporting their sales to its partners, GPN and ABB Analytics, since 2019. The index has been rebased to an average week in 2019. Going forward, this new index base will be used as an arbitrary benchmark and assigned a value of 100.
 
Click here to view the complete Jobson COVID-19 Performance Tracker